Excitons in nitride quantum wells (QWs) are naturally indirect due to the strong internal electric field: electron and hole within such excitons are spatially separated, leading to strong dipole moments and long radiative lifetimes. Extensive studies of indirect excitons (IXs) in GaAs-based heterostructures have shown that a combination of these two features results in many interesting properties of IXs: they can propagate over large distances, can be controlled in-situ by light and external gate voltage, cool down to the lattice temperature before recombination, and form cold and dense gas of interacting bosons. Compared to traditional IXs in arsenide heterostrutures, IXs in GaN QWs have much larger binding energies and smaller Bohr radii. This allows exploring IX propagation up to room temperature, and over a much larger density range. Using spatially- and time-resolved photoluminescence experiments, we have investigated the exciton transport in a 7 nm-wide GaN single QW sandwiched between Al0.19Ga0.81N barriers. The IX emission is imaged, with spectral and temporal resolutions, along the sample plane. Therefore the corresponding spatial density profiles are obtained and monitored as a function of (i) temperature, (ii) the exciton density at the excitation spot, (iii) the substrate material (GaN vs Sapphire) and (iv) the excitation regime (continuous vs pulsed excitation) [F. Fedichkin et al., Phys. Rev. B 91, 205424 (2015)]. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the data combined with numerical modeling, and we show that the efficient propagation of IXs takes place in the high density regime where the in-plane disorder is efficiently screened by the dipole-dipole interaction. Under these latter conditions, exciton mobility is almost temperature-independent from 10K up to room temperature. This suggests that exciton-exciton interaction is by far the dominant scattering mechanism, compared to scattering by the interface disorder. However, the exciton transport is maintained up to 300K only in the QW that was epitaxially grown on a GaN substrate, since nonradiative processes dominate the transport in the case of a sapphire substrate, for which high densities of threading dislocations are present.We provide a detailed understanding of the physical mechanisms of IX transport and its temperature and density dependence, and we show that nitride-hosted IXs constitute a promising system for the formation of collective bosonic states in semiconductors. Financial support: projects INDEX (FP7 PITN-GA-2011-289968) and OBELIX (ANR-15-CE30-0020-02).

Excitons in polar group-III nitride quantum wells (QWs) are naturally indirect, because electron and hole within such excitons are spatially separated. As a consequence, they have strong dipole moments and long radiative lifetimes. Extensive studies of indirect excitons (IXs) in GaAs-based heterostructures have shown, that a combination of these two features results in many interesting properties of IXs: they can propagate over large distances, can be controlled in-situ by light and external gate voltage, cool down to the lattice temperature before recombination, and form cold and dense gas of interacting bosons. Compared to traditional IXs in arsenide heterostrutures, IXs in nitride QWs have much larger binding energies and smaller Bohr radii. This allows exploring IX propagation up to room temperature, and over two orders of magnitude higher density range. Using spatially- and time-resolved photoluminescence experiments we examined temperature, density, substrate material (GaN vs Sapphire) and excitation regime (cw vs pulsed excitation) dependence of the exciton transport in 7 nm wide GaN QW sandwiched between Al0.19Ga0.81N barriers, the structure is characterized by internal electric field of order of 1 MV/cm. Comprehensive analysis of the data combined with numerical modeling show that in GaN QWs efficient propagation of IX takes place in the high density regime where the in-plane disorder is efficiently screened by the dipole - dipole interaction. Under these conditions, exciton mobility is almost temperature-independent from 10 K up to room temperature. This suggests that exciton-exciton interaction is by far dominant scattering mechanism, compared to scattering on the interface disorder. In this context, we argue that nitride-hosted IXs constitute a promising system for formation of collective bosonic states in semiconductors.

La diffusion hyper-Raman (DHR) est une spectroscopie optique des vibrations qui présente des règles de sélection différentes du celles du Raman et de l'infrarouge. Après avoir décrit les principes de la DHR, nous ferons un état de l'art de la dynamique vibrationnelle (IR, Raman, neutrons) du système relaxeur modèle Pb1/3Mg2/3NbO3 (PMN). Nous insisterons sur le comportement des modes mous polaires dont l'observation est uniquement possible par diffusion hyper-Raman. Les résultats ont été capturés dans un modèle qui offre une vision cohérente des propriétés dynamiques de toute une famille de matériaux. Ils relient par exemples les vibrations à la structure polaire locale, et donnent une origine microscopique aux propriétés diélectriques géantes de ces systèmes.

Une introduction à la théorie de la réponse linéaire nous permettra dans un premier temps de définir les notions de susceptibilité, de spectre des fluctuations, de fonction d’auto-corrélation,… et de relier ces grandeurs à travers le théorème de fluctuation-dissipation. Nous déterminerons ensuite l’origine de la diffusion de la lumière et calculerons l’intensité Raman et Brillouin diffusée dans le cadre d’une théorie macroscopique (classique). Ces calculs feront apparaitre des règles de sélection qui seront mises en pratique à travers quelques exemples simples pris parmi les solides cristallins et les liquides.

The fluctuations of electric polarization in a disordered ferroelectric substance, relaxor crystal PbMg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3}O_{3} (PMN), were studied using a nonlinear inelastic light-scattering technique, hyper-Raman scattering, within a 5-100  cm^{-1} spectral interval and in a broad temperature range from 20 to 900 K. The split ferroelectric mode reveals a local anisotropy of up to about 400 K. Spectral anomalies observed at higher temperatures are explained as due to avoided crossing of the single primary polar soft mode with a temperature-independent, nonpolar spectral feature near 45  cm^{-1}, known from Raman scattering. The temperature changes of the vibrational modes involved in the measured fluctuation spectra of PMN were captured in a simple model that accounts for the temperature dependence of the dielectric permittivity as well. The observed slowing down of the relaxational dynamics directly correlates with the huge increase of the dielectric permittivity.

We present a Raman scattering study of optical phonons in hexagonal BN for temperatures ranging from80 to 600 K. The experiments were performed on high-quality, single-crystalline hexagonal BN platelets. Theobserved temperature dependence of the frequencies and linewidths of both Raman active E2g optical phonons isanalyzed in the framework of anharmonic decay theory, and possible decay channels are discussed in the light ofdensity-functional theory calculations. With increasing temperature, the Ehigh mode displays strong anharmonic 2ginteractions, with a linewidth increase that indicates an important contribution of four-phonon processes and amarked frequency downshift that can be attributed to a substantial effect of the four-phonon scattering processes(quartic anharmonicity). In contrast, the Elow mode displays a very narrow linewidth and weak anharmonic 2ginteractions, with a frequency downshift that is primarily accounted for by the thermal expansion of the interlayer spacing.