Photoluminescence spectra and biaxial stress effects of yellow 1S excitons in Cu2O thin films recrystallized epitaxially between paired MgO plates

We investigated biaxial stress effects on the yellow 1S ortho excitons in Cu2O thin films recrystallized between paired MgO plates by measuring photoluminescence spectra, X-ray diffraction and polarization microscope images. On the MgO (001) surface, we found two kinds of epitaxial growth modes of the Cu2O thin films. In such thin films, the yellow 1S ortho exciton states split into two or three levels depending on the respective epitaxial growth modes due to the different biaxial stresses owing to the lattice mismatches between Cu2O and MgO. By using effective Hamiltonians including such biaxial stress effects, we estimated the strengths of the biaxial stresses from the energy splittings of the 1S ortho excitons and confirmed the two kinds of epitaxial growth modes in our Cu2O thin films.