Charged Excitons in a Dilute 2D Electron Gas in a High Magnetic Field

A theory of charged excitons X- in a dilute 2D electron gas in a high magnetic field is presented. In contrast to previous calculations, three bound X- states (one singlet and two triplets) are found in a narrow and symmetric GaAs quantum well. The singlet and a "bright" triplet are the two optically active states observed in experiments. The bright triplet has the binding energy of about 1 meV, smaller than the singlet and a "dark" triplet. The interaction of bound X-'s with a dilute 2D electron gas is investigated using exact diagonalization techniques. It is found that the short-range character of the e:X- interactions effectively isolates bound X- states from a dilute e-h plasma. This results in the insensitivity of the photoluminescence spectrum to the filling factor nu, and an exponential decrease of the oscillator strength of the dark triplet X- as a function of 1/nu$.