Polarization-dependent two-dimensional Fourier-transform spectroscopy (2DFTS) is performed on excitons in strained bulk GaAs layers, probing the coherent response for differing amounts of strain. Uniaxial tensile strain lifts the degeneracy of heavy-hole (HH) and light-hole (LH) valence states, leading to an observed splitting of the associated excitons at low temperature. Increasing the strain increases the magnitude of the HH/LH exciton peak splitting, induces an asymmetry in the off-diagonal interaction coherences, increases the difference in the HH and LH exciton homogenous linewidths, and increases the inhomogeneous broadening of both exciton species. All results arise from strain-induced variations in the local electronic environment, which is not uniform along the growth direction of the thin layers. For cross-linear polarized excitation, wherein excitonic signals give way to biexcitonic signals, the high-strain sample shows evidence of bound LH, HH, and mixed biexcitons.

• Received 19 May 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.075207