Excitonic optical nonlinearities and transport in the layered compound semiconductor GaSe

Dephasing and transient grating experiments in the direct excitonic absorption region of GaSe at low temperatures show that a fast relaxation within the one-dimensionally disordered excitonic band results in band filling being the dominant mechanism of the optical nonlinearity. Correspondingly, we observe a blueshift of the nonlinear signal with excitation density. The temperature dependence of the exciton diffusion constant measured in directions parallel to the GaSe layer planes indicates that temperature-independent scattering (trapping) and scattering by acoustic phonons determine the exciton mobility at low temperatures.