Kinetics of the inner ring in the exciton emission pattern in coupled GaAs quantum wells

We report on the kinetics of the inner ring in the exciton emission pattern. The formation time of the inner ring following the onset of the laser excitation is found to be about 30 ns. The inner ring is also found to disappear within 4 ns after the laser termination. The latter process is accompanied by a jump in the photoluminescence (PL) intensity. The spatial dependence of the PL jump indicates that the excitons outside of the region of laser excitation, including the inner ring region, are efficiently cooled to the lattice temperature even during the laser excitation. The ring formation and disappearance are explained in terms of exciton transport and cooling.