Biexciton binding energy in ZnSe quantum wells and quantum wires

The biexciton binding energy E-XX is investigated in ZnSe/ZnMgSe quantum wells and quantum wires as a function of the lateral confinement by transient four-wave mixing. In the quantum wells one observes for decreasing well width a significant increase in the relative binding energy, saturating for well widths less than 8 nm. In the quantum wires an increase of 30% is found in the smallest quantum wire structures compared to the corresponding quantum well value. A simple analytical model taking into account the quantum confinement in these low-dimensional systems is used to explain the experimentally observed dependence of the biexciton binding energies.