Shakeup Effects on Photoluminescence from the Wigner Crystal

TL;DR

This paper presents a quantum-mechanical method to analyze shakeup effects on photoluminescence in a Wigner crystal, revealing sidebands and peak shifts that differentiate it from a liquid state.

Contribution

It introduces a realistic, comprehensive approach to compute shakeup effects in Wigner crystals, accounting for collective modes across the entire Brillouin zone.

Findings

Shakeup produces identifiable sidebands in photoluminescence.

The main luminescence peak shifts due to lattice relaxation near vacancies.

The method distinguishes crystal from liquid states based on spectral features.

Abstract

We develop a method to compute shakeup effects on photoluminescence in a Wigner crystal from localized holes. Our method treats the lattice electrons and the tunneling electron on an equal footing, and uses a quantum-mechanical calculation of the collective modes that is realistic throughout the Brillouin zone. We find that shakeup produces a series of sidebands that may be identified with maxima in the collective mode density of states, and definitively distinguishes the crystal state from a liquid state. We also find a shift in the main luminescence peak, that is associated with lattice relaxation in the vicinity of a vacancy.