Influence of dielectric environment on quantum-well luminescence spectra

A fully microscopical theory for the photoluminescence of a quantum-well in an arbitrary one-dimensional stack structure is presented. For strong-coupling configurations, the full semiconductor luminescence equations are solved. For the weak-coupling regime, a frequency-dependent filter function is directly derived from the semiconductor luminescence equations with the knowledge of the dielectric structure. Via that filter function, the detected luminescence can be related to the pure quantum-well emission in vacuum. The approach is generalized to include corrections to the emitted peak width due to the photonic-environment-dependent radiative decay, and the corrections are shown to be obtainable from the mode functions alone. The applicability of the method is thoroughly tested up to the onset of normal-mode coupling.