UC San Diego

In GaAs excitons are optically active making them ideally suitable for optical communications and computation. An exciton is composite particle composed of an electron and hole. Indirect excitons are excitons with the electron and hole spatially separated into different quantum wells. Indirect excitons are oriented in the same direction allowing indirect excitons to be manipulated by voltage gradients. This dissertation explores controlling exciton transport with ramps - shaped electrodes that operate as excitonic diodes, or in a crossed ramp configuration operate as an optically controlled transistor. This dissertation also demonstrates an exciton conveyer - a moving lattice created by electrodes driven with AC voltages - that transports excitons over large distances. This dissertation concludes with an observation of exciton spin transport.