Exciton Hamiltonians

L.A. Gonzalez
March 2023

1 Introduction
Excitons are Quasi-particle formed by interaction of electron and hole on ma-
terial, particularly on semi-conductors, a large research on this topic give us a
characterization on two types, the first is the Frenkel exciton: type of exci-
tons that have small radius and is present on the elementary collective electronic
excitations of molecular crystals that consist of weakly interacting molecules;
the second is the Wannier exciton: type of excitons that have Large radius
and is present on the collective electronic excited states of semiconductor and
dielectrics with high dielectric constant. At the same time is possible find on
crystals some structures that form other variation defined like biexciton, as pair
of excitons, or trion where the coulomb interaction occur on relations of two
for one, as two electron to a hole or two holes to a electron, differently as the
regular excitons which could be named mono-excitons.

2 Hamiltonian
As we see the exciton is an interaction of electron-hole, where the principal
potential of interaction is the Coulomb potential, we would think like the exciton
is similar to hydrogen atom where we have an electron interacting with proton
which Hamiltonian have the form of
h̄2 2 e2
H=− ∇ − (1)
2m 4πϵ0 r
where: e is charge, ϵ0 is dielectric constant.
Other form to watch this Hamiltonian on cases where we used reduces mass
of interacting systems as

h̄2 2 e2
H=− ∇ − (2)
2µ 4πϵ0 r
me M
µ=
(me + M )

1
 ϵ2

e’

ϵ1

Figure 1: Keldysh system for theory

where the reduces mass is an effective mass used on problems of two bodies to
operate like a system of one body. As we see this Hamiltonian are on sense
the same except by the mass, and this is a model to obtain information from
excitons [3], but its not the only, reading about the exciton theoretical studies,
a variation used on transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) [2, 1] where use a
variation on potential part of hamiltomnian, defining the potential as:
−πe2 r r
Veh (r) = [H0 ( ) − Y0 ( )] (3)
2r0 r0 r0
where H0 and Y0 are Struve and Bessel functions, used to potentials defined
for electrostatic interactions within a thin 2D dielectric continuum. From the
Keldysh’s theory [4] where do the process to define the potential to thin semi-
conductors and semimetal films, considering the film of large dielectric constant
than the medium constant dielectri.

2.1 Keldysh theory

On that way it defines the form of potential considering a distance −d/2 < z <
d/2 as in 1, where have two charges e and e’ with positions (ρρ, z) and (0, z ′ ),
the interaction energy is defined as in figure 1

4πee′ d2 k 2 ch[|k|( d2 − z) + η2 ]ch[|k|( d2 + z ′ ) + η1 ]

Z
′
V (⃗
ρ, z, z ) = e k⃗
ρ (4)
ϵ (2π)2 |k|sh[|k|d + η1 + η2 ]
1 ϵ + ϵ1,2
η1,2 =
Ln
2 ϵ − ϵ1,2
at the special case of d << a0 and ϵ1,2 , when ρ >> d and in specific interval of
|kk |d >> 1 that allow to V no depend of z or z ′ , doing the 5, reduces to:
2ee′ ∞
Z
J0 dt
V (⃗
ρ) = 2 ρ
(5)
ϵd 0 t + ϵ1 +ϵ ϵ d

2
 Figure 2: Screened energies as a function of radii figure 3b on ref.[2]

πee′ ϵ1 + ϵ2 ρ ϵ1 + ϵ2 ρ
V (⃗
ρ) = [H0 ( ) − N0 ( )]
ϵd ϵ d ϵ d
where H0 and N0 are Newmann and Struve functions.So in the case of d <<
ρ << ϵd/(ϵ1 + ϵ2 )
2ee′ 2ϵ d
ρ) ≈
V (⃗ [Ln( ) − C] (6)
ϵd (ϵ1 + ϵ2 ) ρ
C ≈ 0.577 → EulerCte.
and on cases of ρ >> [ϵ/(ϵ1 + ϵ2 )]d, the potential is
2ee′
ρ) ≈
V (⃗ (7)
(ϵ1 + ϵ2 )ρ
Form defined by Keldysh gives the potential on 4 that finally can write as
2.1 similar to 3 and using some specific parameters, it is becoming to 7 similar
to the Coulomb potential, defined for an hydrogen atom on 1.
The different of two forms of potential V can be watched on its graphic
representation as we see on figure 2, where is possible see the 1/r potential of
2D hydrogen and a ln(1/r) on a effective 2D interaction.

References
[1] Timothy C Berkelbach, Mark S Hybertsen, and David R Reichman. “The-
ory of neutral and charged excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalco-
genides”. In: Physical Review B 88.4 (2013), p. 045318.

3
[2] Alexey Chernikov et al. “Exciton binding energy and nonhydrogenic Ryd-
berg series in monolayer WS 2”. In: Physical review letters 113.7 (2014),
p. 076802.
[3] Aleksandr Sergeevich Davydov. “The theory of molecular excitons”. In:
Soviet Physics Uspekhi 7.2 (1964), p. 145.
[4] LV Keldysh. “Coulomb interaction in thin semiconductor and semimetal
films”. In: Soviet Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters
29 (1979), p. 658.