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# Effects of inhomogeneous broadening on reflection spectra of Bragg multiple quantum well structures with a defect

## I Introduction

Optical properties of multiple quantum well (MQW) structures have been attracting a great deal of attention during the past decade. Keldysh ; IvchenkoSpectrum ; CitrinSpectrum ; IvchenkoMQW ; Andreani1994 ; Hubner1996 ; Stroucken ; Vladimirova ; Merle ; Haas ; Hayes ; Khitrova ; DLPRBSpectrum ; CitrinDefect ; DefectMQWOL ; DefectMQW  The main motivation for this interest is the potential in these systems for effective control of the light-matter interaction. Quantum wells in MQW structures are separated from each other by relatively thick barriers, which prevent a direct interaction between excitons localized in different wells. They however, can be coupled by a radiative optical field, and their optical properties, therefore, become very sensitive to the arrangement of the structures. Most of the initial research in this area was focused on properties of periodic MQW’s, which consist of identical quantum wells separated by identical barriers. The radiative coupling in this case gives rise to MQW polaritons – coherently coupled oscillations of the exciton polarization and light. In structures with a small number of wells, the spectrum of these collective excitations consists of a discrete number of quasi-stationary (radiative) modes with a re-distributed oscillator strength: the modes can be classified as super- or sub-radiant.CitrinSpectrum ; Andreani1994 ; IvchenkoSpectrum  With an increase of the number of wells in the structure, the radiative life-time of the latter decreases, and the life-time of the former increases. When the number of periods in the structure becomes large enough, the modes of the MQW are more conveniently described in terms of stationary polaritons of infinite periodic structures.DLPRBSpectrum  The spectrum of polaritons in this case consists of two branches separated by a polariton gap, which is normally proportional to the light-exciton coupling constant, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. There exists, however, a special arrangement of MQW’s where the magnitude of the gap can be significantly increased. If the period of the MQW structure is made equal to the half-wavelength of the exciton radiation, the geometric, Bragg, resonance occurs at the same frequency as the exciton resonance. As a result, the band gap between two polariton branches becomes of the order of magnitude of $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Omega }_0}\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ is the frequency of the exciton transition. These, so called Bragg MQW structures were quite intensively studied both theoretically Keldysh ; IvchenkoSpectrum ; Vladimirova ; DLPRBSpectrum  and experimentally.Hubner1996 ; Merle ; Haas ; Hayes ; Khitrova  In the case of structures with a small number of periods, the reconstruction of the optical spectra in Bragg MQW’s can be described as a concentration of the oscillator strengths of all oscillators in one super-radiant mode, while all other modes become dark.IvchenkoSpectrum

A presence of the large band gap in the spectrum of Bragg MQW polaritons invites attempts to introduce a defect into a structure in order to create local polariton states with frequencies in the band gap. This would affect the rate of spontaneous emission as well as other optical characteristics of the system. Such an opportunity was first considered in Ref. CitrinDefect, , and was studied in detail in Refs. DefectMQWOL, ; DefectMQW, . It was shown DefectMQW  that by introducing different types of defects one can obtain optical spectra of a variety of shapes, which can be pre-engineered through the choice of the type of a defect, its position in the structure, the number of defects, etc. This fact makes these systems of interest for optoelectronic application. However, in order to be able to predict the optical spectra of realistic structures, any theoretical calculations must deal with the problem of inhomogeneous broadening, which is always present in these systems due to unavoidable structural disorder present in quantum wells. Calculations of Refs. DefectMQWOL, ; DefectMQW,  included inhomogeneous broadening using the linear dispersion theory.KhitrovaLDT ; LDT  The linear dispersion theory treats inhomogeneous broadening as a simple addition to homogeneous broadening, ignoring therefore, effects of the motional narrowing, which have been very well studied in periodic multiple quantum wells.Whittaker ; Whittaker2 ; Kavokin1998  By doing so, the linear dispersion theory grossly overestimates the negative influence of inhomogeneous broadening, thereby giving unrealistically pessimistic predictions. The latter fact was verified in Ref. DeychNanotechnology, , where effects of the vertical disorder on the defect-induced features of the spectra were considered numerically.111By vertical disorder one understands random fluctuations of the exciton frequency from one well to another, while the fluctuations of the frequency along the plane of a single well are referred to as horizontal disorder.

More accurately inhomogeneous broadening can be studied with the help of the effective medium approximation, which was originally introduced in Ref. KavokinGeneral,  on the basis of some qualitative arguments. In this approximation, a random susceptibility of a single quantum well is replaced by its value averaged over an ensemble of exciton frequencies, and therefore, one only needs to take into account the horizontal disorder, since on average all wells in the structure are assumed identical. This approach was shown to agree well with experimental results for both CW and time-resolved spectra,KavokinAssymetry  but so far it has not been justified theoretically. In this paper, we derive this approximation from the Maxwell equations with a non-local exciton susceptibility and demonstrate explicitly the physical meaning of this approximation and the regions of its applicability.

The main objective of this paper is to study the effects of the inhomogeneous broadening in Bragg MQW structures with defects. Here we consider only one structure, namely a GaAlAs/GaAs structure with one of the wells replaced by a well with a different exciton frequency. A similar defect was considered in Ref. DefectMQW, , where it was called an $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$-defect; we retain this terminology in this paper. The consideration in Ref. DefectMQW,  was focused mostly on the concept of local polariton states arising in infinite Bragg MQW structures, and on the effect of the resonant light tunnelling arising due to these local states in long ideal Bragg MQW’s. In this paper, we consider defect-induced modification of the optical spectra in more realistic systems. We take into consideration the inhomogeneous broadening and concentrate on structures with the number of periods readily available with current growth technologies. Keeping in mind the potential of these structures for applications, we study under which conditions the defect-induced resonant features of the spectra of realistic structures can be observed experimentally. We develop a general understanding of the spectral properties of Bragg MQW’s in the presence of defects and disorder required for identifying structures most interesting from the experimental and application points of view. We also obtain a simplified analytical description for the main features of the spectra, valid in some limiting cases. This description is complemented by a detailed numerical analysis. One of the surprising results is that the features associated with the resonant tunnelling via the local polariton state survive in the presence of disorder for much shorter lengths of the structure than was originally expected.DefectMQWOL ; DefectMQW  This makes experimental observation and application of these effects significantly more attractive.

We also suggest a method of determining experimentally parameters of homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening of a defect well in our structures from a single CW reflection spectrum. Such an opportunity seems to be quite exciting from the experimental point of view, since currently the separation of homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings requires the use of complicated time-resolved spectroscopic techniques. Attempts to develop a method for an independent extraction of the parameters of homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings from spectra of periodic MQW structures were undertaken in Refs. KavokinGeneral, ; KavokinFourier, , but they also required either a time resolved spectroscopy or a not very reliable Fourier transformation of the original CW spectra.

## II Reflection spectrum of a MQW structure

Within the framework of the linear nonlocal response theory, propagation of an electromagnetic wave in a multiple quantum well structure is governed by the Maxwell equations

$$\times (\times 𝐄)=\frac{\omega ^2}{c^2}\left(ϵ_{\mathrm{}}𝐄+4\pi 𝐏_{ext}\right),$$
(1)
where $`ϵ_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the background dielectric constant assumed to be the same along the structure, $`P_{ext}`$ is the excitonic contribution to the polarization defined by

$$𝐏_{ext}(z)=\stackrel{~}{\chi }(\omega ,z,z^{})𝐄(z^{})𝑑z^{},$$
(2)
and the susceptibility $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }`$ is

$$\stackrel{~}{\chi }(\omega ,z,z^{})=\stackrel{~}{\chi }(\omega )\mathrm{\Phi }(z)\mathrm{\Phi }(z^{}),$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }(z)`$ is the exciton envelope function and $`z`$ is the growth direction. Considering only the 1-s heavy hole exciton states and neglecting the in-plane dispersion of excitons, the susceptibility can be written asAndreanireview

$$\stackrel{~}{\chi }(\omega )=\frac{\alpha }{\omega _0\omega i\gamma },$$
(4)
where $`\omega _0`$ is the exciton resonance frequency, $`\gamma `$ is the exciton relaxation rate due to inelastic processes, $`\alpha =ϵ_{\mathrm{}}\omega _{LT}\pi a_B^3\omega _0^2/c^2`$, $`\omega _{LT}`$ is the exciton longitudinal-transverse splitting and $`a_B`$ is the bulk exciton Bohr radius.

The reflection spectrum of MQW structures is effectively described by the transfer matrix method. For waves incident in the growth direction of the structure, the transfer matrix describing propagation of light across a single quantum well in the basis of incident and reflected waves is IvchenkoSpectrum

$$T=\frac{1}{t}\left(\begin{array}{cc}t^2r^2& r\\ r& t\end{array}\right),$$
(5)
where $`r`$ and $`t`$ are the reflection and transmission coefficients of a single quantum well,

$$r=\frac{e^{i\varphi }i\chi }{1i\chi },t=\frac{e^{i\varphi }}{1i\chi },$$
(6)
$`\varphi =kd`$, $`k=\sqrt{ϵ_{\mathrm{}}}\omega /c`$ is the wave number of the electromagnetic wave, $`d`$ is the period of the MQW structure (the sum of widths of the barrier and the quantum well), $`\chi =\mathrm{\Gamma }_0/(\omega _0\omega i\gamma ),`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ is the effective radiative rate

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=\frac{\alpha }{2k}\left[𝑑z\mathrm{\Phi }(z)\mathrm{cos}kz\right]^2,$$
(7)
and we neglect the radiative shift of the exciton resonance frequency.

The parameter $`\gamma `$ in the exciton susceptibility, Eq. (4), introduces the nonradiative homogeneous broadening due to inelastic dephasing of excitons. Inhomogeneous broadening results from fluctuations of the exciton transition frequency $`\omega _0`$ in the plane of a well caused by, for example, imperfections of the interface between the well and the barrier layers and/or presence of impurities. In general, fluctuations of the exciton frequency are described by the $`n`$-point distribution functions, $`f(\omega _0(\rho _1),\omega _0(\rho _2),\mathrm{})`$, where $`\rho _i`$ is a coordinate of a point in the plane of the quantum well. However, in the effective medium approximation,KavokinGeneral ; AgranovichI ; Whittaker  adopted in this paper, only a simple one-point function, $`f(\omega _0)`$, is needed. This function is used to define an average susceptibility, neglecting a possible dependence of the exciton envelop function on the energy, KavokinGeneral ; KavokinSpectrum ; Savarona

$$\stackrel{~}{\chi }=𝑑\omega _0\chi (\omega )f(\omega _0).$$
(8)
In this approach, the inhomogeneous broadening is characterized by the variance of the distribution function, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. As we already mentioned in the Introduction, the effective medium approximation has never been actually derived, and therefore, its theoretical status and applicability remains unclear. In the Appendix we demonstrate how this approximation can be obtained from a general theory of interaction between light and excitons in a disordered quantum well, and explain why it gives such an accurate description of the optical properties of quantum wells.

The function $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }`$ replaces $`\chi `$ in Eq. (6) and determines a single-well transfer matrix of a broadened well,KavokinGeneral  which is then used to construct the transfer matrix describing the propagation of light through the entire Bragg MQW structure. The structure considered in this paper, a Bragg MQW with an $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$-defect, consists of $`N=2m+1`$ quantum well-barrier layers which are all identical except for one, at the center, where the quantum well has a different frequency of the exciton resonance (Fig. 1). Such a defect can be produced either by changing the concentration of $`Al`$ in the barriers surrounding the central well,ALdependence\_book ; ALdependence  or the width of the well itselfwidthdependence  during growth. In principle, both these changes will also affect the optical width of the defect layers, either because of the change in the background dielectric constant, or due to the change of the geometrical thickness of the well. However, in both cases this effect is negligible, and we deal here with the case of a pure $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$-defect.

The total transfer matrix through the MQW structure consists of the product

$$M=T_h\mathrm{}T_hT_dT_h\mathrm{}T_h,$$
(9)
where $`T_h`$ and $`T_d`$ are the transfer matrices through the host and defect layers, respectively, described by the reflection and transmission coefficients $`r_{h,d}`$ and $`t_{h,d}`$. Substitution of the explicit expressions for $`T_h`$ and $`T_d`$ leads to a compact expression for the total transfer matrix in the basis of eigenvectors of the host transfer matrix $`T_h`$

$$M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}e^\mathrm{\Lambda }M_{}& a_+A\\ a_{}A& e^\mathrm{\Lambda }M_+\end{array}\right),$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=N\lambda _h`$,

$$M_\pm =e^{\pm (\lambda _d\lambda _h)}\pm \frac{2e^{\lambda _h}}{\mathrm{sinh}\lambda _h}\mathrm{sinh}^2\frac{1}{2}(\lambda _d\lambda _h),$$
(11)
and

$$A=\frac{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }{\mathrm{sinh}\lambda _h}\left(\chi _d\chi _h\right).$$
(12)
Here we introduced $`a_\pm `$, non-unit components of the eigenvectors of $`T_h`$,

$$a_\pm =\frac{1e^{\pm \lambda _h}t_h}{r_h},$$
(13)
and $`\lambda _{h,d}`$ are the eigenvalues of the host and defect quantum well’s transfer matrices obeying the dispersion law in a periodic quantum well superlatticeKeldysh ; IvchenkoSpectrum ; CitrinSpectrum :

$$\mathrm{cosh}\lambda _{h,d}=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}T_{h,d}=\mathrm{cos}\varphi \chi _{h,d}\mathrm{sin}\varphi .$$
(14)
In the case of an ideal system without homogeneous or inhomogeneous broadenings, this equation describes the band structure of the electromagnetic spectrum of MQW’s, consisting of a number of bands separated by forbidden band gaps, defined as frequency regions where $`\mathrm{Re}\lambda _h0`$. This real part describes the exponential decrease of the amplitude of an incident wave, and its inverse gives the value of the respective penetration length. In the allowed bands, $`\lambda _h`$ is purely imaginary, and its imaginary part is the Bloch wave vector of the respective excitation. There are two types of the excitations here. In the vicinity of the exciton frequency $`\omega _h`$, there exist two polariton branches separated by a polariton band gap.DLPRBSpectrum  There are also pure photonic bands with the band boundaries at the geometrical resonances, $`\varphi (\omega _r)=n\pi `$ ($`n=1,2\mathrm{}`$). The size of the polariton gap strongly depends on the relation between $`\omega _h`$ and $`\omega _r`$, and reaches the maximum value when they coincide, i.e. when $`\varphi (\omega _h)=\pi `$ (the Bragg structure). For these frequencies, it is convenient to extract the imaginary part from $`\lambda _h`$ and to present it in the form

$$\lambda _h=\kappa _h+i\pi .$$
(15)
If the coupling parameter $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ is small, $`\kappa _h`$ in the gap can be approximated by the following expression, which is obtained by expanding Eq. (14) near the resonance frequency

$$\kappa _h=\sqrt{\pi q(2\chi _h\pi q)},$$
(16)
where $`q`$ is the detuning from the Bragg resonance

$$q=\frac{\omega \omega _h}{\omega _h},$$
(17)
Taking into account the form of the susceptibility in an ideal system, we obtain

$$\kappa _h=\pi \sqrt{Q_G^2q^2},$$
(18)
where

$$Q_G=\sqrt{\frac{2\mathrm{\Gamma }_0}{\pi \omega _h}}$$
(19)
determines the boundary of the forbidden gapDLPRBSpectrum  as a point where $`\kappa _h`$ vanishes. The frequency, which corresponds to this boundary determines the width of the gap as $`\sqrt{2\mathrm{\Gamma }\omega _h/\pi }`$. This value is significantly greater than the respective width in the off-Bragg case, which is proportional to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\omega _h`$. In the presence of homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings, the notion of the band gap becomes ill defined, because $`\kappa _h`$ does not vanish anywhere. At the gap boundary, for instance, it becomes complex valued

$$\kappa _h(\omega _G)=(1+i)\pi \sqrt{\frac{\gamma Q_G}{2\omega _h}}.$$
(20)
Nevertheless, if $`\gamma \sqrt{\mathrm{\Gamma }\omega _h}`$, which is the case in realistic systems, the optical spectra retain most of their properties specific for the gap region, and this concept provides a useful physical framework for discussing optical properties of MQW structures.

Once the transfer matrix, $`M`$, for the entire MQW structure is known the reflection and transmission coefficients can be expressed in terms of its elements, $`m_{ij}`$, as

$$\begin{array}{c}\hfill r_{MQW}=\frac{m_{11}+m_{12}m_{21}+m_{22}}{a_{}\left(m_{12}+m_{22}\right)a_+\left(m_{11}+m_{21}\right)},\\ \hfill t_{MQW}=\frac{a_{}a_+}{a_{}\left(m_{12}+m_{22}\right)a_+\left(m_{11}+m_{21}\right)}.\end{array}$$
(21)
A defect inserted into the structure leads to a modification of the reflection spectrum of the MQW in the vicinity of the exciton frequency, $`\omega _d`$, of the defect well. We are interested in the situation when $`\omega _d`$ lies within the polariton band gap of the ideal host structure, because in this case the defect produces the most prominent changes in the spectra. A typical form of such a modification in broadened systems is shown in Fig. (2), and is characterized by the presence of a closely positioned minimum and maximum. In an ideal system, this form of reflection would correspond to a Fano-like resonance in the transmission with the latter swinging from zero to unity over a narrow frequency interval.DefectMQW  In the presence of absorbtion and inhomogeneous broadening, the resonance behavior of the transmission is smeared out, while the resonance in reflection, as we can see, survives.

In order to analyze the form of the reflection spectra, we represent the reflection coefficient in the form

$$r_{MQW}=\frac{r_0}{1r_{add}},$$
(22)
where

$$r_0=\frac{2\mathrm{sinh}(\mathrm{\Lambda })}{a_{}e^\mathrm{\Lambda }a_+e^\mathrm{\Lambda }}=\frac{\chi _h}{\alpha +i\mathrm{coth}(\mathrm{\Lambda })\mathrm{sinh}\lambda _h}$$
(23)
is the reflection coefficient of a pure MQW structure (without a defect) with the length $`N`$, $`\alpha =\mathrm{sin}\varphi +\chi _h\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$, and $`r_{add}`$ introduces the modification of the reflection caused by the defect

$`r_{add}=(\chi _d\chi _h)\mathrm{sin}\varphi {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sinh}\lambda _h+i\chi _h\mathrm{sinh}\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\chi _h\mathrm{cosh}\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha }}`$
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{1}{A(\alpha +\chi _h\mathrm{cosh}\mathrm{\Lambda })\chi _h\mathrm{sinh}\mathrm{\Lambda }}}.`$ (24)
This expression allows for making some general conclusions regarding the effects of the defect and broadenings on the reflection spectrum. First of all, it should be noted that regardless of the value of the defect frequency $`\omega _d`$, $`r_{add}`$ vanishes at frequencies $`\omega =\omega _h`$ because of the phase factor $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi \pi q`$.

Thus, in order to achieve a significant modification of the spectrum, it is necessary to choose $`\omega _d`$ as far away from $`\omega _h`$ as possible. In this case, however, we can immediately conclude that the broadening of the host wells does not significantly affect the defect-induced features of the reflection spectrum.

Indeed, the broadenings enter into Eq. (II) through the susceptibility $`\chi _h`$ defined by Eq. (8). Let us rewrite this definition in the form

$$\chi _h=𝑑\nu f(\nu )\frac{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}}{\nu qi\stackrel{~}{\gamma }},$$
(25)
where we have introduced $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_0/\omega _h`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }=\gamma /\omega _h`$, $`\nu =(\omega _0\omega _h)/\omega _h`$, and $`\omega _h`$ is the mean value of the exciton frequency. If the function $`f(\nu )`$ falls off with increasing $`\nu `$ fast enough, so that all its moments exist, we can approximate the integral for the frequencies $`q/\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }},q/\stackrel{~}{\gamma }1`$ as

$$\chi _h\stackrel{~}{\chi }_h𝑑\nu f(\nu )\left(1+\frac{\nu }{q+i\stackrel{~}{\gamma }}+\mathrm{}\right),$$
(26)
where

$$\stackrel{~}{\chi }_h=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_0}{\omega _h\omega i\gamma }$$
(27)
is the susceptibility in the absence of the inhomogeneous broadening. Noting that now integration of each term in the parentheses gives an appropriate central moment of $`\nu `$ we obtain

$$\chi _h\stackrel{~}{\chi }_h\left(1+\frac{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^2}{q^2}+\mathrm{}\right).$$
(28)
Therefore, the corrections due to the inhomogeneous broadenings become small for frequencies, which are farther away from the central frequency than the inhomogeneous width $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Since the width of the polariton gap in Bragg MQW structures is significantly greater than the typical value of the inhomogeneous width, we can choose such a position of the defect frequency, $`\omega _d`$, which is far enough from $`\omega _h`$, and at the same time remains within the gap frequency region.

Significant diminishing of the effects due to disorder in optical spectra of periodic MQW for frequencies away from the resonance exciton frequency was obtained theoretically in Ref. KavokinGeneral,  and observed experimentally in Ref. InhomFar, . This can also be seen in Fig. 2, where deviations from the spectra of an ideal structure (dashed line) caused by disorder in the host wells are significant only in the vicinity of $`\omega _0`$. The modification of the defect induced features of the spectra, which takes place in the vicinity of $`\omega _d`$ are caused by broadenings of the excitons in the defect layer, and this is the only broadening, which has to be taken into consideration in this situation.

## III Deep and shallow defects

While Eq. (II) is suitable for a general discussion and numerical calculations, it is too cumbersome for a detailed analytical analysis. For such purposes we consider the reflection coefficient for two limiting cases when the expression for $`r_{add}`$ can be significantly simplified. The first limit corresponds to the situation when the penetration length of the electromagnetic wave at the frequency of the defect is much smaller than the length of the structure (we call it a deep defect), and the second is realized in the opposite case, when the system is much shorter than the penetration length (shallow defect).

### III.1 Deep defect

When $`\omega _d`$ lies so far away from both $`\omega _h`$ and the boundary of the band gap that the penetration length of the electromagnetic wave is much smaller than the length of the structure \[$`\mathrm{Re}(\mathrm{\Lambda })1`$\], two different approximations are possible. When the homogeneous broadening is small enough such that

$$\gamma <8\pi \omega _h\sqrt{Q_G^2\delta ^2}\frac{e^{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}\delta ^3}{Q_G^2},$$
(29)
where $`\delta =(\omega _d\omega _h)/\omega _h`$, the systems is close to ideal, and the results of Ref. DefectMQW,  remain valid. This inequality, however, becomes invalid for long systems, and then the exponentially small non-resonant terms in Eq. (II) can be neglected. The reflection in the vicinity of $`\omega _d`$ in this case can be presented in the form

$$r=r_0\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_d\mathrm{\Gamma }_0D_d}{\mathrm{\Omega }_d\mathrm{\Gamma }_0D_d2ie^\mathrm{\Lambda }\delta ^2\omega _h},$$
(30)
where $`D_{d,h}=1/\chi _{d,h}`$ and

$$r_0=\frac{1}{1+D_h\left[\pi q+i\kappa _h\left(1+2e^{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}\right)\right]}$$
(31)
is the approximation for the reflection coefficient of the structure without the defect for frequencies deeply inside the forbidden gap. We keep the term $`\mathrm{exp}(2\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ in this expression in order to preserve the correct dependence of the reflection coefficient of the pure structure on its length. The frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_d`$,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_d=\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }_0\frac{\delta }{\kappa _h},$$
(32)
describes the shift of the position of the reflection resonance from the initial defect frequency $`\omega _d`$. This shift is an important property of our structure, which takes place in both ideal and broadened systems; Eq. (32) is a generalization to the systems with inhomogeneous broadening of the result obtained in Ref. DefectMQW, .

Deriving Eq. (30), in addition to the assumption about the relation between the length of the structure and the penetration length, we also assumed that the exciton frequency of the defect well lies far enough from the frequency of the host wells, and neglected the contribution of the host susceptibility $`\chi _h`$ into the terms proportional to $`\chi _d\chi _h`$. We also dropped a frequency dependence of the non-resonant terms.

Eq. (30) shows that when the defect well exciton frequency lies deeply inside the forbidden gap the effect of the defect on the reflection spectrum of the system exponentially decreases when the length of the MQW structure increases. This behavior is strikingly different from that of the respective ideal systems, where resonant tunnelling results in the transmission equal to unity at the resonance regardless of the length of the system. One can see that homogeneous broadening severely suppresses this effect, as was anticipated in Ref. DefectMQW, .

If the shift, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_d`$, of the resonance frequency from $`\omega _d`$ is large enough, so that $`\omega _r`$ is well separated from $`\omega _d`$, the effects of the inhomogeneous broadening can be neglected. In this case, we can derive a simple approximate expression for the reflection coefficient in the vicinity of $`\omega _r`$. The condition $`\mathrm{\Omega }_d\mathrm{\Delta }`$ can, in principle, be fulfilled because $`\kappa _h(\omega _d)`$ decreases when the frequency goes to the edge of the stop band where $`\kappa _h`$ is determined by Eq. (20) and for GaAs/AlGaAs MQW structures with $`\omega _h=1.49\mathrm{eV}`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=67\mu \mathrm{eV}`$, $`\gamma =12.6\mu \mathrm{eV}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=290\mu \mathrm{eV}`$ we obtain $`\mathrm{Re}[\mathrm{\Omega }(\omega _h+\omega _G)]/\mathrm{\Delta }6.3`$.

In this case, in the vicinity of the resonance frequency we can approximate the susceptibility $`\chi _d`$ by

$$\chi _d=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_0}{\omega _d\omega i\gamma }$$
(33)
and obtain that the resonance has a form of the Lorentz-type dip on the dependence of the reflection spectrum positioned at $`q=\mathrm{\Omega }_d`$ with the depth, $`H`$, and the width, $`W`$, defined by expressions

$$H=|r_0|^2\frac{1+\gamma e^\mathrm{\Lambda }/\omega _h\delta ^2}{\left(1+\gamma e^\mathrm{\Lambda }/2\omega _h\delta ^2\right)^2},$$
(34)
$$W=\gamma +e^\mathrm{\Lambda }\delta ^2\omega _h.$$
(35)
It should be noted, however, that while formally this approximation is valid even when $`\omega _d`$ is close to the edge of the forbidden gap, the deep defect approximation requires that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$. For $`GaAs/AlGaAs`$ structures this means that $`N>1/\mathrm{Re}(\kappa _h)2000`$. The structures of this length are beyond current technological capabilities, so this case presents mostly theoretical interest.

In the opposite situation, when the frequency shift is small ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_d<\mathrm{\Delta }`$), i.e. when $`\omega _d`$ is not too close to the edge of the gap, the inhomogeneous broadening becomes important, and in order to estimate its contribution we use a Gaussian distribution of the exciton resonance frequencies in Eq. (8):

$$\chi _d=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_0}{\mathrm{\Delta }\sqrt{\pi }}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega _0\frac{e^{(\omega _0\omega _d)^2/\mathrm{\Delta }^2}}{\omega _0\omega i\gamma }.$$
(36)
Using the function $`w(\mu )=e^{\mu ^2}\mathrm{erfc}(i\mu )`$, the integral can be written as

$$\chi =i\mathrm{\Gamma }_0w(\mu )\sqrt{\pi }/\mathrm{\Delta },$$
(37)
where $`\mu =(\omega \omega _d+i\gamma )/\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The small $`\mu `$ expansionAbramowitz

$$w(\mu )1+2i\mu /\sqrt{\pi }$$

allows us to obtain:

$$D_d=\frac{2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_0\pi }\left(\omega _d\omega i\stackrel{~}{\gamma }\right),$$
(38)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ is the effective broadening,

$$\stackrel{~}{\gamma }=\gamma +\frac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2}\mathrm{\Delta }.$$
(39)
One can see that in this case the inhomogeneous and homogeneous broadening combine to form a single broadening parameter $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$, as it is assumed in the linear dispersion theory. The resonance on the reflection curve also has, in this case, a Lorentz-type dip centered at

$$q=\frac{\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }_0\delta }{2\omega _h\sqrt{\omega _G^2\delta ^2}},$$
(40)
with the depth and the width, respectively, equal to

$$H=|r_0|^2\frac{2\pi e^\mathrm{\Lambda }\delta ^2\omega _h}{\stackrel{~}{\gamma }},W=\stackrel{~}{\gamma }+\pi e^\mathrm{\Lambda }\delta ^2\omega _h.$$
(41)
Because of the inhomogeneous broadening contribution, the effective parameter $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ becomes so large that $`\pi e^\mathrm{\Lambda }\delta ^2\stackrel{~}{\gamma }/\omega _h`$, and the defect-induced reflection resonance becomes rather weak compared to the case considered previously.

### III.2 Shallow defect

From the experimental point of view, a more attractive situation arises when the length of the structure is smaller than the penetration length. This situation, which can be called the case of a shallow defect, can be described within the same approximations as used in the previous section, with an obvious exception of the treatment of terms proportional to $`e^\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Here we can expand the exponential function in terms of the powers of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Finally we arrive at the following expression, which describes the defect-induced modification of the reflection spectra:

$$r=\frac{i\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}}{\omega _h\omega +i(\gamma +\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }})}\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_s\mathrm{\Gamma }_0D_d}{i\mathrm{\Gamma }_0\mathrm{\Gamma }_0D_d},$$
(42)
where $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ is the radiative width of the pure Bragg MQW structure, which is $`N`$-fold enhanced because of the formation of a superradiant modeIvchenkoMQW

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_0N}{1i\pi qN}.$$
(43)
This expression coincides with the results of Ref. IvchenkoMQW,  with the exception of the term proportional to $`qN`$, which was neglected in the previous papers. We keep this term to be able to consider the case when the detuning from the resonance point $`\omega _h`$ is not very smallIvchenkoContrast .

The distinctive feature of the shallow defect is that the reflection resonance does not have a Lorentz-like shape, which is typical for the deep defect when the resonant tunnelling is suppressed. Instead, we have a reflection spectrum with a minimum at $`\omega _{}`$ and a maximum at $`\omega _+`$. This is a surprising result, because the Fano-like behavior associated with the resonant tunnelling is restored even though the length of the system is too short for effective tunnelling to take place. It is convenient to describe the positions of these frequencies relative to the modified defect frequency,

$$\stackrel{~}{\omega }_d=\omega _d\mathrm{\Omega }_s,$$
(44)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$ is defined as

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_s=\frac{\omega _d\omega _h}{N}.$$
(45)
The positions of the extrema are shifted from $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_d`$: $`\omega _{}`$ toward the center of the gap, and $`\omega _+`$ in the opposite direction. As a result, $`\omega _{}`$ is well separated from $`\omega _d`$, while $`\omega _+`$ always lies in the close vicinity of the defect frequency.

For short systems, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$ can become larger than $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$; for example, in GaAs/AlGaAs MQW structures, the condition $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is fulfilled when $`NN_0=10`$. In this case, an approximate analytical description of the spectrum is possible again. However, since the maximum and the minimum of the spectra lie at significantly different distances from $`\omega _d`$, the description of these two spectral regions would require different approximations. The maximum of the reflectivity takes place close to the defect frequency, and therefore the inhomogeneous broadening near the maximum has to be taken into account. At the same time, $`\omega _{}\omega _d\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and the inhomogeneous broadening in this frequency region can be neglected. Thus, we can approximate $`D_d`$ by Eq. (33) in the vicinity of $`\omega _{}`$ and by Eq. (38) near $`\omega _+`$. Using these approximations we find that the minimum and the maximum of the reflection coefficient are at the frequencies

$$\omega _{}=\omega _d\mathrm{\Omega }_s\frac{\gamma ^2}{\mathrm{\Omega }_s}$$
(46)
and

$$\omega _+=\omega _d+\frac{1}{\pi }\left(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_s\mathrm{\Omega }_s\right)+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_0\stackrel{~}{\gamma }}{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_s\mathrm{\Omega }_s}\left(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_s+\mathrm{\Omega }_s\right)$$
(47)
respectively, where $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_s=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Omega }_s^2+4\stackrel{~}{\gamma }^2}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ is the effective broadening defined by Eq. (39). The values of the reflection at these points are

$`R_{min}={\displaystyle \frac{|\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}|^2\gamma ^2N^4}{(\omega _d\omega _h)^4(N1)^2}},`$
$`R_{max}={\displaystyle \frac{|\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}|^2(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Omega }}_s+\mathrm{\Omega }_s)^2}{(\omega _+\omega _h)^2(2\mathrm{\Gamma }_0+\pi \stackrel{~}{\gamma })^2}}.`$ (48)
The exact and approximate forms of the reflectivity are compared in Fig. 3. One can see that these approximations give a satisfactory description of the reflectivity in the vicinities of the extrema for short systems.

The minimal value of the reflection is determined only by the small parameter of the homogeneous broadening, $`\gamma `$, and can therefore become very small. This fact reflects the suppression of the inhomogeneous broadening in this situation. When the length of the system increases, $`R_{min}`$ grows as $`N^4`$, however, when $`N>N_0`$, the inhomogeneous broadening starts coming into play: $`\gamma `$ must be replaced with a larger effective broadening containing a contribution from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. This also leads to a significant increase in $`R_{min}`$. This behavior is illustrated in Fig. 4, where a comparison of the reflection coefficients for two MQW structures with different lengths is provided. The expression for $`R_{min}`$, Eq. (III.2), allows one to obtain an estimate for the parameter of the homogeneous broadening $`\gamma `$ by measuring the value of $`R_{min}`$, since all other parameters entering this expression are usually known. This approach to determining $`\gamma `$ from reflection experiments, however, cannot be used when the predicted values of $`R_{min}`$ is too small, because other factors (such as small mismatch in the indexes of refraction between different components of the structure) which were neglected in our calculations can become important. At the same time, it can be expected that for not very short systems, satisfying the condition $`N<N_0`$, the parameter $`\gamma `$ can be determined from the reflection spectrum.

The inhomogeneous parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ enters expressions Eq. (47) for $`\omega _+`$ and Eq. (III.2) for $`R_{max}`$. Therefore, one can determine this parameter from two independent values accessible from the reflection spectra. The maximum value of the reflection coefficient in this approximation depends very weakly on the number of wells in the system, and is of the order of the magnitude of the reflection from a single standing defect well in the exact resonance. This result means that for a small number of wells, $`\omega _+`$ lies in the spectral region, where the host system is already almost transparent, and the presence of the host has only a small effect on the reflection properties of the system with the defect. At the same time, we would like to emphasize again that the minimum of the reflection is the result of the radiative coupling between the wells even in this case of short systems.

### III.3 Characterization of the reflection spectra in the case of intermediate lengths

In the previous subsections we examined special situations when the defect can be considered as either deep or shallow. In both cases, we were able to derive approximate analytical expressions describing defect-induced modification of the spectra and to obtain a qualitative understanding of how the defect affects the reflection spectrum. In particular, it was demonstrated that the characteristic frequencies related to the modification of the spectrum are shifted from the resonant defect frequency of a single well. This shift is the result of radiative coupling between the excitons in the defect well and the collective excitations of the host system. One of the important consequences of this shift is the possibility for almost complete suppression of the effects due to inhomogeneous broadening in some spectral intervals. In this subsection we consider systems with intermediate lengths, when $`N`$ is larger than $`N_0`$, but is still smaller or of the order of magnitude of the penetration length. From the practical point of view, this case is of the greatest interest, since this interval of lengths is still easily accessible experimentally, and at the same time, it is expected that for such structures the defect-induced modifications of the spectrum become most prominent. Unfortunately, neither approximation used in the previous subsections can be applied here, and we have to resort to a numerical treatment. Nevertheless, the qualitative understanding gained as a result of the previous analytical considerations, serves as a useful guide in analyzing and interpreting the numerical data.

As it was pointed out in the previous section, when $`N`$ becomes larger than $`N_0`$, the position of the minimum of the reflection, $`\omega _{}`$ moves closer to $`\omega _d`$, and the inhomogeneous broadening starts contributing to $`R_{min}`$. This effect can phenomenologically be described as the emergence of an effective broadening parameter $`\gamma _{eff}(\gamma ,\mathrm{\Delta },N)`$, which is not a simple combination of $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, but depends upon $`N`$. This parameter is limited from below by $`\gamma `$, when the inhomogeneous broadening is suppressed, and from above by $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$, when the contribution from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is largest. Because the minimum value of the reflection is always achieved at a point shifted with respect to $`\omega _d`$, generally $`\gamma _{eff}`$ is always smaller than $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$, and the homogeneous broadening makes the main contribution to it even for systems with $`N>N_0`$ despite the fact that $`\gamma \mathrm{\Delta }`$. At the same time, the position of $`\omega _+`$, which determines the width of the spectral interval affected by the defect, depends upon $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Thus the effect of the broadenings on the spectrum can in general be summarized in the following way: while the width of the resonance is determined equally by both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings, its strength depends mostly upon the homogeneous broadening.

We illustrate this conclusion quantitatively by defining the width of the resonance, $`W(\gamma ,\mathrm{\Delta },N)=\omega _+\omega _{}`$, as a distance between the extrema of the reflection spectrum, and its depth, $`H(\gamma ,\mathrm{\Delta },N)=R_{max}R_{min}`$, as the difference between the values of the reflection at these points. In order to see how these quantities depend upon parameters $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, we chose several different values of $`W`$ and $`H`$, and plot constant level lines, $`W(\gamma ,\mathrm{\Delta },N)=W_i`$, $`H(\gamma ,\mathrm{\Delta },N)=H_i`$. These lines represent values of $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for which $`W`$ and $`H`$ remain constant (Fig. 5).

The locus of constant widths is the set of nearly straight lines running almost parallel to the axis representing the homogeneous broadening. Slight deviation from the straight-line behavior is seen only for non-realistically high values of $`\gamma `$. Such a behavior confirms our assertion that the width of the resonance is determined by an effective parameter, in which $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ enter additively. As we see, this is true even for systems which cannot, strictly speaking, be described by approximations leading to Eq. (47). Since usually $`\gamma \mathrm{\Delta }`$, the latter makes the largest contribution to this effective parameter, and determines the value of $`W`$. The shape of the lines of constant height demonstrates almost equal contributions from $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which means that the effect due to the inhomogeneous broadening is significantly reduced as far as this feature of the spectrum is concerned. This is also consistent with an approximate analysis presented in the previous section of the paper.

The remarkable feature of Fig. 5 is that the lines of the constant width and the constant high cross each other at a rather acute angle and at a single value of $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for each of the values of $`W`$ and $`H`$. This means that one can extract both $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ from a single reflection spectrum of the MQW structure. This is a rather intriguing opportunity from the experimental point of view, since presently, the only way to independently measure parameters of homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings is to use complicated time-resolved techniques.

It is clear, however, that the shape of the lines of constant $`W`$ and $`H`$ depends upon the choice of the distribution function used for calculation of the average susceptibility of the defect well. It is important, therefore, to check how the results depend upon the choice of the distribution function of the exciton frequencies. As an extreme example, one can consider the Cauchy distribution

$$f(\omega _0)=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{(\omega _0\overline{\omega })^2+\mathrm{\Delta }^2}.$$
(49)
In this case, all the effects due to the inhomogeneous broadening can be described by a simple renormalization, $`\gamma \gamma +\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and the level lines in Fig. (5) would have the form of parallel lines. This distribution though, hardly has any experimental significance, while the Gaussian function has a certain theoretical justification.Efros  However, the symmetrical character of the normal distribution is in obvious contradiction with a natural asymmetry of the exciton binding energies, which can be arbitrarily small but are bounded from above. It was suggested in Ref. KavokinAssymetry,  to take this asymmetry into account by introducing two different variances in the Gaussian distribution: $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}`$ for frequencies below some (most probable) frequency $`\omega _c`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$ for the frequencies above it. Accordingly, the distribution function can be written as

$$f(\omega _0)=\frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi }(\mathrm{\Delta }_++\mathrm{\Delta }_{})}\{\begin{array}{cc}e^{\frac{(\omega _0\omega _c)^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }_{}}},\hfill & \omega _0<\omega _c,\hfill \\ e^{\frac{(\omega _0\omega _c)^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }_+}},\hfill & \omega _0>\omega _c.\hfill \end{array}$$
(50)
It was shown that this choice gives a satisfactory description of time-resolved spectra of MQW’s.KavokinAssymetry  The distribution function Eq. (50) can be parameterized either by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\pm `$ and $`\omega _c`$ or, more traditionally, by the mean value, $`\overline{\omega }`$, the second moment, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and the parameter of asymmetry, $`n`$, defined as

$`\overline{\omega }={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_+\mathrm{\Delta }_{}}{\sqrt{\pi }}},n={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_+}{\mathrm{\Delta }_{}}},`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }^2={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_+^3+\mathrm{\Delta }_{}^3}{\mathrm{\Delta }_++\mathrm{\Delta }_{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}(\mathrm{\Delta }_+\mathrm{\Delta }_{})^2.`$ (51)
We use the corrected distribution function, Eq. (50), with the fixed mean frequency and the variance, but different values of the asymmetry parameter, in order to see how sensitive the defect induced features of the reflection spectrum are to the shape of the distribution function. To this end, we plot the lines of constant height and width for different values of the asymmetry parameter $`n`$ ($`1n2`$). The results are presented in Fig. 6.

An interesting result revealed by these graphs is that with the change of the asymmetry, the points at which $`W`$ and $`H`$ level lines cross move parallel to the axis of $`\gamma `$, while the respective values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ remain quite stable. This indicates that the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which can be obtained by comparing experimental reflection spectra with the theory presented in this paper, is not sensitive to the choice of the distribution function of the exciton frequencies. The value of the parameter of the homogeneous broadening is more sensitive to the asymmetry of the distribution function: it varies by approximately ten percent when the parameter of the asymmetry changes by a factor of two. However, the estimate for $`\gamma `$ can be improved by studying the temperature dependence of the reflection spectra.

## IV Conclusion

In the present paper we studied the reflection spectra of a Bragg multiple quantum well system with a defect: the quantum well at the center of the structure was replaced by a well with a different exciton resonance frequency. In an ideal infinite system such a defect gives rise to a local state with a frequency within the polariton stop band of the host structure, which reveals itself in the form of reflection and transmission resonances.DefectMQW  The main focus of this paper was on the effects due to the inhomogeneous broadening, which was taken into account within the framework of the effective medium approximation.KavokinGeneral  Since in Ref. KavokinGeneral,  this approach was introduced on the basis of qualitative arguments only, in the Appendix we presented a rigorous derivation of this approximation and clarified its physical status.

We consider two limiting cases in which defect-induced features of the spectrum can be described analytically. In one case, the length of the system is much larger than the penetration length of the radiation in the infinite periodic structure, $`l_c`$ (deep defect). The modification of the reflection in this case is described by a Lorentz-like minimum, whose depth exponentially decreases with increasing length of the MQW structure, Eq. (41). For long enough structures the presence of the defect in the structure becomes unnoticeable. A much more interesting situation arises in the opposite case of systems much shorter than $`l_c`$ (shallow defect). In this case, the reflection spectrum exhibits a sharp minimum followed by a maximum. This shape of the spectrum resembles a Fano-like resonance observed in long lossless systems. The position of the maximum of the reflection is close to the exciton frequency in the defect well, $`\omega _d`$, where the short host structure is almost transparent, and therefore the properties of the spectrum near this point are similar to those of an isolated quantum well. At the same time, the minimum is shifted from $`\omega _d`$ by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s=(\omega _d\omega _h)/N`$ and due to this shift an influence of the inhomogeneous broadening, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, on the spectrum near this point is strongly suppressed. When $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the value of the reflection at the minimum, $`R_{min}`$, is determined solely by the small homogeneous broadening, and this results in extremely small values of $`R_{min}`$, Eq. (III.2).

The structure of the spectrum with two extrema persists also in the case of an intermediate relation between $`l_c`$ and $`N`$. This situation, however, is more complicated and can only be analyzed numerically. Nevertheless, due to the shift of the minimum reflection frequency one can conclude that the minimum value of the reflection is determined mostly by the homogeneous broadening, while the distance between the maximum and the minimum is affected by an additive combination of the homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings. This circumstance allowed us to suggest a simple method of extracting both $`\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the defect well from the reflection spectrum of the structure.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to Steven Schwarz for reading and commenting on the manuscript. The work is supported by AFOSR grant F49620-02-1-0305 and PSC-CUNY grants.

*

## Appendix A The effective medium approximation for a single quantum well

The objective of this appendix is to derive “from first principles” the main result of the effective medium approximation, Eq. (61) with $`\kappa `$ replaced by the average susceptibility, given by Eq. (8).

A wave incident at a normal, $`z`$, direction on a quantum well can be described by a scalar form of Maxwell’s equations for one of the polarizations parallel to the plane of a quantum well:

$$^2E(z)=\frac{\omega ^2}{c^2}\left(ϵ_{\mathrm{}}E(z)+4\pi P(z)\right),$$
(52)
where $`P(z)`$ is the polarization due to quantum well excitons. The latter is determined by an expression similar to Eq. (2) with the exciton frequency being a random function of the in-plane coordinate $`\rho `$

$$P(z,\omega )=d^2\rho \chi (\rho ,\omega )\mathrm{\Phi }(z)\mathrm{\Phi }(z^{})E(z^{},\rho ),$$
(53)
where the susceptibility is

$$\chi (\rho ,\omega )=\frac{\alpha }{\omega (\rho )\omega i\gamma }.$$
(54)
In order to simplify our calculations we make an assumption that $`\mathrm{\Phi }(z)`$ can be approximated by a delta-function. This approximation is sufficient for our particular goals here, but the results obtained will remain valid for more rigorous treatment of the excitonic wave functions as well. After the Fourier transformation with respect to the in-plane coordinates, Eq. (52) can be presented in the form

$`\left(\kappa _q^2+{\displaystyle \frac{d^2}{dz^2}}\right)E_x(q,z)`$ (55)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{2\omega ^2\delta (z)}{c^2}}{\displaystyle d^2q\chi (qq^{},\omega )E(q^{},z)},`$ (56)
where $`\kappa _q^2=\omega ^2ϵ_{\mathrm{}}/c^2q^2`$.

Let us represent the susceptibility as a sum of its average value and a fluctuating part

$$\chi (q,\omega )=\chi (\omega )\delta (q)+\stackrel{~}{\chi }(q,\omega ),$$
(57)
where $`\chi (\omega )`$ can be written in the form

$$\chi (\omega )=𝑑\omega _0f(\omega _0)\frac{\alpha }{\omega _0\omega i\gamma }.$$
(58)
The electromagnetic wave existing to the left of the quantum well consists of the incident and reflected waves. We will see later that the structure of the Maxwell equations with the polarization, Eq. (53), dictates that the reflection coefficient has a $`\delta `$-functional singularity in the specular direction, $`q=0`$. It is convenient to separate this singularity from the very beginning and to present the wave at the left-hand side of the quantum well in the following form.

$$E_{}(q,z)=\left(E_0e^{ikz}+E_0r_0e^{ikz}\right)\delta (q)+E_0r(q)e^{i\kappa _qz}.$$
(59)
A similar expression for the wave at the right-hand side of the quantum well containing only transmitted waves can be written as

$$E_+(\rho ,z)=E_0t_0e^{ikz}\delta (q)+E_0t(q)e^{i\kappa _qz}.$$
(60)
After the substitution of Eqs. (58), (59), and (60) into Eq. (55) we obtain an integral equation for the reflection and transmission coefficients, $`r(q)`$, and $`t(q)`$. Assuming that the random process representing the fluctuating part of $`\chi `$ does not include constant or almost periodic realizations, we can conclude that $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }(q,\omega )`$, does not have $`\delta `$-like singularities in almost all realizations. In this case, the terms proportional to $`\delta (q)`$ in this equation must cancel each other independently of other terms. This leads to a system of equations for $`r_0`$ and $`t_0`$ with the solutions

$$r_0=\frac{i\eta }{1i\eta },t_0=\frac{1}{1i\eta },$$
(61)
where

$$\eta =\frac{\omega }{c\sqrt{ϵ_{\mathrm{}}}}\chi .$$
(62)
These expressions coincide with those of the effective medium approach, Eq (6), with an accuracy up to the phase factor, which does not appear in our derivation because of the $`\delta `$-functional approximation for the excitonic wave function. We can conclude, therefore, that the substitution of the average susceptibility into the Maxwell equations allows us to conside the singular contribution to the reflection (transmission) only. The remaining terms, which are neglected in this approximation, give only small corrections to the reflection (transmission) in the specular direction. However, these terms become important when one considers scattering of light from quantum wells. Another important assumption in our derivation concerns the spatial dispersion of the excitons. The existence of the singular contribution to the reflection (transmission) coefficients is directly related to neglecting any exciton motion in the in-plane direction. Spatial dispersion of excitons will smooth out this singularity, and, therefore, the smoothness of experimental scattering spectra can be used, in principle, to estimate the exciton’s mass.

It is also important to emphasize that the outlined procedure does not involve any averaging of the electric field, and therefore the results obtained describe an intrinsically “deterministic” contribution to the reflection and transmission coefficients rather than some average characteristics thereof. The existence of such a singular component in the scattering spectrum was mentioned in Ref. CitrinScattering,  as well as observed in numerical calculations of Ref. SavonaUltrafast, .


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# Observational evidence for supermassive black hole binaries

## 1 Introduction

The major route of forming binary black holes is via mergers of galaxies. If both merging galaxies harbor supermassive black holes at their centers (e.g., Richstone 2002), these two black holes will finally sink to the center of the potential and will eventually merge. Hierarchical merger models of galaxy formation predict that binary black holes should be common in galaxies (e.g., Haehnelt & Kauffman 2002, Volonteri et al. 2003). The merging process will be enhanced in clusters and groups of galaxies. Under some circumstances, black holes may already form as binaries at the centers of the first galaxies (Bromm & Loeb 2003).

Mergers of massive binary black holes produce strong gravitational wave signals (e.g., Thorne & Braginsky 1976, Centrella 2003, Baker 2003) which will be detectable for the first time with the future space-borne gravitational wave interferometer mission LISA (e.g., Bender et al. 1998, Danzmann 1996, Haehnelt 1994) for masses in the range $``$10$`{}_{}{}^{47}M_{}^{}`$.

Supermassive binary black holes (BBHs) are expected to be of wide astrophysical relevance. Their detection and number estimates provide important constraints on models for galaxy formation and evolution. Their detection allows to study one possible route of BH growth, that by merging of BHs with each other, the frequency of these events, and their relevance for BH growth. BBHs were suggested to play a role in increasing AGN activity (e.g, Gaskell 1985, Gould & Rix 2000), in triggering starburst activity (Taniguchi & Wada 1996), and in the formation of molecular tori (Zier & Bierman 2001, 2002) which are believed to be an important ingredient in unified models of AGN. The possible relevance of BBHs in explaining different classes of radio-loud AGN was variously addressed (e.g., Basu et al. 1993, Wilson & Colbert 1995, Villata & Raiteri 1999, Britzen et al. 2001), and it was suggested that the misalignments between the direction of radio jets and disks in active galaxies (AGN) are due to past black hole merges in these galaxies (Merritt 2002, 2003). Once LISA results become available, the gravitational waves from coalescing binary black holes will be used to infer merger rates and the merger history of BHs/galaxies (e.g., Haehnelt 1994, Menou et al. 2001, Hughes 2002, Menou 2003), and possibly black hole masses (Hughes 2002, Menou 2003). In the future, gravitational waves of coalescing BHs may be used as cosmological standard candles, if the optical counterparts of these systems can be identified (Holz & Hughes 2003).

Given the importance of BBHs, the wide role they may play in explaining observations of classes of activity, and given the expectations that they should be common, based on galaxy formation scenarios, one key question is: what is the actual observational evidence that BBHs do exist ? This is the topic of this review. An overview is given of the different types of observations which point to the presence of BBHs, and of the scenarios invoked to explain these observations. Remaining uncertainties in both, observations and models are discussed. Due to space limitations, referencing will be incomplete. My apologies in advance.

### 1.1 Binary black hole formation and evolution

BBHs will be formed in the course of merging of two galaxies (e.g., Begelman et al. 1980, Valtaoja et al. 89, Milosavljevic & Merritt 2001, Yu 2002, and references therein). The merging of the two black holes basically proceeds in three stages (e.g., Fig. 1 of Begelman et al. 1980). In a first stage, the cores of the merging galaxies reach closer towards each other by dynamical friction (e.g. Valtaoja et al. 1989). The third stage is the actual merging of the two black holes by emission of gravitational waves (GWs). Which processes are effective in the intermediate second stage and how efficiently they operate, i.e., how quickly the separation between the BHs shrinks to a distance where GW emission becomes significant, is still a subject of intense theoretical study (see Merritt 2003 for a review).

A number of processes which could lead to a hardening of the black hole binary were discussed, including stellar slingshot effects and re-filling of the loss cone (Saslaw et al. 1974, Quinlan & Hernquist 1997, Milosavljevich & Merritt 2001, Zier & Biermann 2001, and references therein), black hole wandering (e.g. Merritt 2001, Hemsendorf et al. 2002, Chatterjee et al. 2003), interaction with surrounding gas and the accretion disk (e.g. Ivanov et al. 1999, Gould & Rix 2000, Haehnelt & Kauffmann 2002, Armitage & Natarajan 2002), and/or the Kozai mechanism (Blaes et al. 2002). Theoretical calculations show, that under some circumstances none of these mechanisms may operate in sufficient strength, with the consequence that the BBH is expected to stall at separations of 0.01-1 pc (e.g., Milosavljevich & Merritt 2001).

There is circumstantial evidence that most BBHs do actually merge in less than a Hubble time. Haehnelt & Kauffman (2002) argued, if the binaries lasted too long, some of them would be ejected from the nucleus in the course of a three-body interaction with a third black hole, once a new merger occurs. That would lead to the prediction of the existence of galaxies without BHs at their center, as opposed to observations that most galaxies do harbor SMBHs.

Theoretical issues of BBH formation and evolution are covered in much greater detail by Haehnelt, Volonteri et al., and Milosavljevich & Merritt in these proceedings, and in the review by Merritt (2003).

Most of the BBH evidence described below is based on observations of active black holes, i.e. phenomena like presence of radio-jets, presence of hard and luminous X-ray emission, and optical emission-line ratios typical of Seyfert galaxies.

### 1.2 BBHs as explanations for different classes of astrophysical objects or specific components of the AGN core

It is generally expected, that merging between galaxies may trigger all kinds of activity in the center of the merger remnant (e.g., Gaskell 1985), for instance by driving gas to the central region (Barnes & Hernquist 1996) which then triggers starburst and AGN activity.

In particular, the presence of a binary black hole was explicitly invoked to explain different facets of activity in galaxies: Taniguchi & Wada (1996) proposed that the BBH which was formed in the course of a major merger triggers starburst activity near the nucleus, while BBHs in minor mergers lead to formation of hot-spot nuclei.

According to Zier & Bierman (2001, 2002), the influence of the BBH on the surrounding stellar distribution will lead to a torus-like structure. Winds of these stars would then form the tori of molecular gas, thought to be ubiquitous in AGN and thought to play an important role in unification scenarios of AGN (Antonucci et al. 1993).

The possible relevance of BBHs in explaining different classes of radio-loud AGN was addressed repeatedly (e.g., Basu et al. 1993, Wilson & Colbert 1995, Villata & Raiteri 1999, Valtonen & Heinämäki 2000, Britzen et al. 2001, Merritt 2002). Villata & Raiteri (1999) speculated that all blazars ”owe their origin to the presence of binary black holes”, and that differences between different classes of AGN are due to an evolutionary sequence: BL Lacs and FRI radio galaxies would represent the advanced stages with close binary pairs and low mass accretion, while FRII galaxies would harbor the wide pairs with long orbital periods (observationally less easily recognizable).

Wilson & Colbert (1995) suggested that the difference between radio-loud and radio-quiet AGN arises because the former, in elliptical galaxies, posses rapidly spinning BHs, spun up (not by accretion but) as a result of the coalescence of the two original BHs, while the latter, residing in spiral galaxies, have non-spinning BHs. The jets are considered to be powered by the spin of the BHs in the radio-loud galaxies.

Merritt (2002, 2003) pointed out that the spin re-orientation of the primary black hole caused by repeated mergers would explain the fact that the orientations of radio jets of AGN are almost random with respect to the plane of the stellar disk.

Finally, different types of jet structures in individual galaxies were interpreted as observational evidence for the presence of BBHs. This topic is addressed in more detail in the next sections.

## 2 Observational evidence for binary black holes:
spatially unresolved systems

### 2.1 BBH merger remnants

#### 2.1.1 X-shaped radio galaxies

Some radio galaxies show jets with very peculiar morphology; abrupt changes in jet direction, forming X-shaped patterns (e.g., Fig. 2 of Leahy & Williams 1984, Fig. 1 of Parma et al. 1985, Leahy & Parma 1992, Capetti et al. 2002, Wang et al. 2003). The changes are more abrupt than in S-shaped radio galaxies. While the latter shapes are usually explained in terms of precession effects (e.g. Ekers et al. 1978), Parma et al. (1985) noted that the cross-shaped morphology is likely linked to an abrupt change in jet ejection axis, or is consistent with a precession phenomenon for a specific viewing geometry.

About 15 X-shaped or ‘winged’ radio sources are known, most of them associated with low-luminosity FRII sources. Except one (Wang et al. 2003), none of the X-shaped radio galaxies shows optical quasar activity in form of broad emission lines at their center. The host galaxies mostly exhibit high ellipticities (Capetti et al. 2002). A number of them have companion galaxies (Tab. 1 of Merritt & Ekers 2002), and the host galaxy of one (3C293) shows clear signs of interaction (Evans et al. 1999).

Several different models to explain the X-shaped patterns were addressed in the literature, which either link the characteristic X-shape to a re-orientation of the jet axis, or to effects of backflow from the active lobes into the wings (see, e.g., Sect. 5,6 of Dennett-Thorpe et al. 2002 for a summary)111Leahy & Williams (1984) studied a backflow model to explain the X-shaped radio structures (their Fig. 6; see Capetti et al. 2002 for another variant of these type of models). In their model of a light jet, post-jet-shock material is re-accelerated towards the center, causing backflows which, back at the source, expand laterally. In favor of backflow type of models, as opposed to jet-reorientation models, Capetti et al. (2002) noted that a number of the winged radio galaxies show wings preferentially aligned with the minor axis of the host galaxies. On the other hand, Dennett-Thorpe et al. (2002) argued that backflow models are untenable for sources like 3C223.1 and 3C403 which show wings that are longer than the active lobes. Other types of models, argued to be unlikely by Merrit & Ekers (2002), involve accretion of dwarf galaxies and warping instabilities of the accretion disk in order to explain a re-orientation of the jet axis. .

According to Merritt & Ekers (2002) and Zier & Biermann (2002), the X-shaped patterns reflect changes in the orientation of the black hole’s spin axis, caused by the merger with a second SMBH. This is also one of the two explanations preferred by Dennett-Thorpe et al. (2002). Merritt & Ekers favored minor mergers and showed that these can significantly change the spin axis of the primary black hole.

#### 2.1.2 Double-double radio galaxies with interrupted jet activity

Secondly, so called double-double radio galaxies (Schoenmakers et al. 2000) were suggested to be remnants of merged BBHs (Liu et al. 2003). These are sources which exhibit pairs of symmetric double-lobed radio-structures, aligned along the same axis. Inner and outer radio lobes have a common center (Fig. 1-3 of Schoenmakers et al. 2000) and there is a lack of radio emission between inner and outer lobes. The most likely origin of these structures is an interruption and re-starting of the jet formation. The interruption time scale is about 1 Myr.

Several ideas were proposed to explain this phenomenon (see Sect. 5 of Schoenmakers et al. 2000). Liu et al. (2003) favor the presence of binary black holes which have already merged in these systems. According to Liu et al. the inward spiralling secondary black hole temporarily leads to the removal of the inner parts of the accretion disk around the primary black hole, thus to an interruption of jet formation. Jet activity restarts after the outer parts of the accretion disk refill the inner parts of the disk.

These two important classes of candidates for BBH merger remnants – the X-shaped radio galaxies and the double-double radio galaxies – will certainly receive intense observational interest in the next few years, in order to address questions like: are there any double-double radio galaxies with changes in the jet direction (Liu et al. assumed the merging BHs to be coplanar but this does not always have to be the case) ? Do we see X-shaped radio galaxies with an interruption of jet-activity between the core and the wings (if the wings reflect an earlier period of activity they would no longer be powered today, which could be confirmed by very high-resolution radio imaging) ?

### 2.2 Helically distorted radio jets

A third phenomenon exhibited by radio jets which was suggested to be linked to the presence of binary black holes (Begelman et al. 1980) is the presence of (semi-periodic) deviations of the jet directions from a straight line. Helical distortions and bendings of jets have been seen in a number of sources (including 3C273, 3C449, BL Lac, Mrk 501, 4C73.18 and PKS0420-014; see e.g., Fig. 1 of Roos et al. 1993, Fig. 3 of Tateyama et al. 1998), interpreted as manifestation of BBHs in these systems.

While there is general agreement that the wiggles in radio jets are most plausibly caused by the presence of BBHs, different mechanisms to explain the observations have been favored. These either link the observations to orbital motion of the jet-emitting black hole (e.g., Kaastra & Roos 1992, Roos et al. 1993, Hardee et al. 1994), or to precession effects, either precession of the accretion disk around the jet-emitting black hole under gravitational torque (on shorter time scales; e.g. Katz 1997, Romero et al. 2000), or to geodetic precession (acting on longer time scales; e.g. Begelman et al. 1980). Correspondingly, black hole mass estimates in these systems are still subject to uncertainties by a factor $``$10-1000.

### 2.3 Semi-periodic signals in lightcurves

#### 2.3.1 OJ 287

Another periodic phenomenon very often attributed to the presence of BBHs is (semi)periodic changes in lightcurves. The best-studied candidate for harboring a BBH, inferred from the characteristics of its optical lightcurve, is the BL Lac Object OJ 287, which exhibits optical variability with quite a strict period of 11.86 years (Silanpää et al. 1988, 1996, Valtaoja et al. 2000, Pursimo et al. 2000, and references therein). Optical observations of this source can be followed back to 1890 (e.g., Fig. 1 of Pursimo et al. 2000). How can the BBH model explain periodic optical variability ? Basically, two different classes of models were discussed: (i) accretion(disk)-related variations in the luminosity (e.g., Silanpää et al. 1988, Lehto & Valtonen 1996), or (ii) jet-related variability due to Doppler-boosting of varying strength (Katz 1997, Villata et al. 1998). Variants of them have also been invoked to explain apparent periods in the data of other BL Lac objects. (i) According to the original idea of Silanpää et al. (1988), the tidal perturbation, when the secondary approaches closest to the accretion disk of the primary leads to increased accretion activity, thus a peak in the optical lightcurve. (ii) Katz et al. (1997) studied a model in which precession of the accretion disk, driven by the gravitational torque of a companion mass (a second black hole), causes the jet to sweep periodically close to or across our line of sight. This then leads to a modulation of the observed intensity of light due to Doppler-boosting.

Combining radio and optical observations of OJ 287, Valtaoja et al. (2000) recently favored a scenario in which the first optical peak is due to a thermal flare, when the secondary BH plunges into the accretion disk of the primary. Following the major optical flare, a second optical flare is observed about a year after the first peak, and (only) that second peak is accompanied by enhanced radio emission (Valtaoja et al. 2000). This second peak is traced back to the tidal perturbation, excerted by the secondary black hole upon closest approach to the accretion disk of the primary which leads to increased accretion activity. The observed $``$12 yr period ($``$9 yr in the rest frame) then corresponds to the orbital period of the BBH.

A possible alternative to the BBH models, a well-defined duty-cycle model of accretion, is briefly mentioned by Valtaoja et al. (2000), but is considered as an unlikely explanation for the case of OJ 287, due to its quite strict periodicity.

The next optical maximum of OJ 287 is expected in March 2006. No doubt, this BL Lac will then be the target of intense multi-wavelength monitoring campaigns.

#### 2.3.2 Other cases

Optical variability with indications for periodicity ($`N`$ = a few, where $`N`$ is the number of periodic oscillations) and periods on long (order 10-20 yrs) and intermediate (order 20 days - 1 yr) scales have been observed in other blazars (see Sect. 1 of Fan et al. 1998 and Tab. 1 and 2 of Xie 2003 for summaries). Among them a 336 day period of minima in the optical lightcurve of PKS1510-089 (Xie et al. 2002), a 14 yr period in optical data of BL Lac (Fan et al. 1998), a 5.7 yr period of AO 0235+16 at radio frequencies (Raiteri et al. 2001), and a 23-26 day period of Mrk 501 at TeV energies (Hayashida et al. 1998). No other data set brackets as long a time interval as OJ 287, though, and periodicities are generally less conspicuous and less persistent as in OJ 287222For instance, the lightcurves of BL Lac also indicate periods of 0.6 yr, 0.88 yr, 7.8 yr and 34 yr, and it is unclear whether all of them are real, and what causes them..

In some, but not all cases, the variability in the lightcurves was traced back to the presence of a BBH, but different types of models were involved, which either relate the variability to real changes in the luminosity, or apparent changes due to Doppler-boosting effects in those lightcurves which show periodic brightness peaks.

Rieger & Mannheim (2000, see DePaolis et al. 2002 for a generalization of their approach to other orbits) showed that the periodic variability of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 at TeV energies with a period of about 23 days and $`N`$=6 is possibly related to the presence of a BBH. According to their model, the observed flux modulation arises from a varying Doppler-factor due to slight variations in inclination angle of (a moving blob in) the jet, caused by the orbital motion of the less massive, jet-emitting black hole. The presence of a BBH in Mrk 501 was also discussed with respect to the complex radio jet morphology of this source (Conway & Wrobel 1985, Villata & Raiteri 1999), and in relation to peculiarities in its spectral energy distribution (Fig. 2 of Villata & Raiteri 1999).

### 2.4 Doule-peaked BLR line profiles

If binary black holes exist in active galaxies, it can plausibly be expected that several are at nuclear separations such that their orbital motion causes observable effects on the profiles of the broad emission lines (e.g. Stockton & Farnham 1991, Gaskell 1996).

A number of AGN were observed which show double-horned emission-line profiles (Arp 102B and 3C390.3 are prominent examples). These line profiles were interpreted as evidence for two physically distinct broad line regions (BLRs) of two black holes at the centers of the two galaxies.

However, in those cases examined closely, so far, the BBH interpretation was disfavored, mostly because the predicted temporal variations in the line profiles, as the two BHs orbit each other, were not detected in optical spectroscopic monitoring programs (Halpern & Filippenko 1988, Eracleous et al. 1997). In one case, the apparent double-horned profile of the Balmer lines turned out to be an artifact of other spectral peculiarities (Halpern & Eracleous 2000).

Yu (2002) pointed out that orbital timescales of binary BHs with BLRs in AGN may generally be expected to be as large as 100-1000 yr, in which case no detectable variability in the red and blue peak of the emission-line profile is expected on the timescale of years. A further complication in the search for BBHs via characteristic line profiles is the existence of a number of other mechanisms which are also known to produce double-peaked line profiles, like bipolar outflows and accretion disks, not related to BBHs.

### 2.5 Galaxies which lack central cusps

Essentially all evidence presented for the presence of BBHs is linked to some activity of at least one of the two black holes which form the pair (like radio jets, AGN-like emission-lines, etc.).

There is one exception, which is some rather indirect hint for the presence of binary black holes. Lauer et al. (2002) used HST to identify several early-type galaxies with inward-decreasing surface-brightness profiles. The presence of galaxies with such central ‘holes’ rather than cusps is expected in some models of BBH evolution (see Sect. 6 of Merritt 2003 for a summary), reflecting the ejection of stars from the core in the course of the hardening of the black hole binary.

## 3 Observational evidence for binary black holes: spatially resolved systems

If a large number of BBHs exist in very close orbits, we also expect some pairs of larger separations, directly resolvable as individual SMBHs in nearby galaxies. Below, I discuss the few available observations which fall in this category.

### 3.1 X-ray active black hole pair: NGC 6240

Recent observations of the Chandra X-ray observatory let to the discovery of a pair of active black holes333Actually, what is observed is the characteristic signs of AGN activity. The step that this is equivalent to SMBH detection is based on the widespread belief, that AGN are indeed powered by SMBHs. This statement basically holds for all other BBH evidence: it is always the activity associated with the black hole(s) which is detected. in the center of the (ultra)luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240 (Komossa et al. 2003). The BBH in NGC 6240 is special in that it is presently the only BH pair I am aware of at the center of one galaxy, and spatially resolved such that both (active) BHs can be separately identified.

The galaxy NGC 6240 belongs to the class of (ultra)luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) which are characterized by an IR luminosity exceeding $``$1012 L (see Sanders & Mirabel 1996 for a review). NGC 6240 is one the nearest (U)LIRGs and is considered a key representative of its class. NGC 6240 is the result of the merger of two galaxies, expected to form an elliptical galaxy in the future. It harbors two optical nuclei (Fried & Schulz 1983). Their nature remained unclear. In particular, no optical signs of AGN activity showed up in ground-based optical spectra. An active search for obscured AGN activity in NGC 6240 was carried out during the last two decades (see Sect. 1 of Komossa et al. 2003 for a summary) which let to the detection of absorbed, intrinsically luminous X-ray emission (Schulz et al. 1998) extending up to $``$100 keV (Vignati et al. 1999) from the direction of NGC 6240. Spatial resolution was insufficient to locate the source of the hard X-ray emission, though.

Employing the superb spatial imaging spectroscopy capabilities of the X-ray observatory Chandra, it was found that both nuclei of NGC 6240 are active (Fig. 1), i.e. harbor accreting supermassive black holes (Komossa et al. 2003). The southern and northern nucleus show very similar X-ray spectra which are flat, heavily absorbed, and superposed on each is the presence of a strong neutral (or low-ionization) iron line. These kind of spectra have only been observed in AGN.

The projected separation of the X-ray cores is 1.5 arcsec, corresponding to a physical separation of 1.4 kpc. Over the course of the next few hundred million years, the two black holes in NGC6240 are expected to merger with each other.

### 3.2 Binary quasars

A small fraction of (high-redshift) quasars were observed to be accompanied by a second nearby quasar (image) with the same redshift. These may either be gravitational lenses, true quasar pairs, or chance alignments. The majority of them are in fact the result of gravitational lensing.

Several pairs with separations 3-10′′ were argued to be real pairs, i.e., physically distinct binary quasars (see, e.g., Tab. 1 of Mortlock et al. 1999 and of Kochanek et al. 1999, Sect. 2.5.8 of Schneider et al. 1992). The distinction between a real pair and a lensed quasar is mostly based on: (i) whether or not a lens is detected and (ii) whether or not the quasar spectra differ significantly, and/or whether or not there are other significant differences, like when one image is radio-loud, the other radio quiet. Lack of a detectable lens, and very different quasar spectra/properties strongly argue for real pairs. There is a growing number of quasar images identified as true pairs or as excellent candidates for true pairs, among them Q1343.4+2640 (with substantial spectral differences; Crampton et al. 1988), LBQS0103-2753 (the smallest-separation pair known, with very different optical spectra; Junkkarinen et al. 2001), LBQS0015+0239 (interpreted as probable binary system due to lack of an optically bright lens which then makes it the highest-redshift binary known, at $`z`$=2.45; Impey et al. 2002), LBQS1429-0053 (similar optical spectra but lack of a lens candidate; Faure et al. 2003), UM 425 (similar optical/UV spectra but different amounts of absorption in X-rays and lack of a bright lens; Mathur & Williams 2003, Aldcroft & Green 2003), and Q2345+007 (Green et al. 2002). Q2345+007 at $`z`$=2.15 is an interesting case: Despite essentially identical optical spectra, no lens could be found in the optical and X-ray band (Green et al. 2002). The X-ray spectra of the quasars do differ, and Green et al. favor an interpretation in terms of a real quasar pair.

The smallest-separation known binary quasar is LBQS0103-2753 at redshift $`z`$=0.848. Its projected separation of 0.3′′ corresponds to $``$ 2.5 kpc. It remains uncertain, whether the projected separation reflects the true separation. For instance, the emission-line shifts in both quasar spectra ($`v`$=3900 km/s) indicate a much larger separation, but emission lines are not always good indicators of systemic redshift (Junkkarinen et al. 2001). Junkkarinen et al. point out that if the systemic redshift difference is much smaller than indicated by the emission lines, LBQS0103-2753 would most likely be a galaxy merger with two quasar cores.

It is interesting to note that there appears to be a lack of small pair separations. Apart from LBQS0103-2753 other pairs have separations $`>`$ 2′′, and typically 3-10′′. These projected separations convert to distances of $``$10-80 kpc, given the redshifts of the quasars (see Fig. 7 of Mortlock et al. 1999 for an attempt to derive physical separations by a random deprojection method).

In any case, a chance projection of the quasar pairs on average is very unlikely, because the pairs are in excess of what is expected from chance projections of single, unrelated sources. Open questions then are: are the host galaxies of the quasars interacting, are they bound to each other and in the process of merging ? At low redshifts, this question can be addressed by searching for morphological and kinematical distortions in the host galaxies. However, most binary quasars are at large redshifts ($`z12`$), and sometimes the host galaxies are not even detected444Kochanek et al. (1999b) used HST to find that the host galaxies of the binary quasar MGC 2214+3550 are undisturbed, implying their physical separation is greater than their projected separation of $``$20 kpc.

If the quasar cores reside in galaxies which are already interacting with each other, then the quasar activity might have plausibly been triggered in the course of the interacting/merging process (e.g., Kochanek et al. 1999).

Assuming the observed binary quasars are bound pairs, Mortlock et al. (1999) estimated that dynamical friction will drive them closer together on a timescale comparable to a Hubble timescale. Since this is longer than the typical activity time scale of quasars, these authors pointed out that closer pairs may already be beyond the phase of quasar activity (no fuel left in the center) and therefore not easily detectable.

### 3.3 Pairs of galaxies which both harbor radio-jet sources: 3C75

In the course of a VLA radio survey of Abell clusters, the very unusual morphology of the radio source 3C75 close to the center of the cluster of galaxies Abell 400 was discovered. It showed two pairs of radio jets (Fig. 1 of Owen et al. 1985) and was first considered an apparently single galaxy with two cores.

However, optical follow-up observations showed two elliptical galaxies which each posses a radio-jet emitting core. Such a configuration is quite unusual, and an important question became: are these two galaxies interacting or merging with each other ? Generally, this can be decided upon examination of the isophotes and kinematics of the galaxies. For instance, asymmetric isophote distortions and tidal tails indicate an ongoing (advanced) merger (e.g. Lauer 1988). As regards 3C75, no distortions of the inner isophotes and no kinematic disturbances were found (Balcells et al. 1995, Govoni et al. 2000). However, the outer isophotes show an off-centering and twist (Lauer et al. 1988, DeJuan et al. 1994, Balcells et al. 1995, Govoni et al. 2000). These observations indicate, that the two galaxies are presently not bound to each other, but do interact with each other (Balcells et al. 1985). Balcells et al. cautioned, that dust may play a role as well in explaining the non-concentric isophotes. Independently, though, it was argued that the galaxies likely are not spatially very distant from each other, because the jets show similar bends, i.e. should have passed similar regions of the ICM (Owen et al. 1985).

In any case the two elliptical galaxies are close to the cluster center, and are expected to sink to the center of the potential and merge, ultimately.

## 4 Concluding remarks, LISA rates, uncertainties, future observations

In summary, various lines of evidence point to the existence of supermassive binary black holes at the centers of galaxies. According to BBH evolution models, the longest timescales in the evolution of the binary up to coalescence are likely those in which the binary is closely bound ($``$ 0.01-10 pc; see, e.g., Fig. 1 of Begelman et al. 1980); most BH pairs would therefore not be spatially resolved. These pairs likely manifest their presence in imprinting periodic phenomena on observed galaxy properties, like wiggling radio jets and quasi-periodic variations in lightcurves (most prominently seen in OJ 287).

However, we do expect to see some wider pairs which can be spatially resolved. It should be noted, though, that these can only be easily recognized, if both black holes are active. Likely, a number of them escape detection if the second BH is not in an active state at the epoch of observation. The pair with the smallest physical separation spatially resolved ($``$1.5 kpc), and the only one we are aware of at the center of a single galaxy, is the X-ray active pair of black holes in NGC 6240. There are wider pairs, in form of binary galaxies with active centers, like, the two galaxies which make the radio source 3C75 or several binary quasars; those with closest spatial separations may already be in an advanced stage of merging.

Some post-merger candidates for BBHs were proposed, especially the X-shaped radio galaxies, interpreted as result of minor mergers between two black holes, leading to a spin-flip in the resulting black hole and a corresponding change in jet direction. Based on this scenario, Merritt & Ekers (2002) predict a merger event rate for this type of galaxies of $``$1/year detectable by gravitational wave interferometers.

Within the framework of the BBH models, uncertainties arise from questions like, which scenario is the correct one (in particular, orbital motion versus precession effects) to describe the data. This, in particular, leads to large uncertainties in predictions of the BH masses of the observed systems, which range from 106 \- 1010 M. The high BH mass range would be outside the LISA sensitivity range.

Future search for (active) binary BHs will likely concentrate on topics like (i) an extended X-ray search for active binary black holes at the centers of (ultraluminous IR) galaxies using Chandra, (ii) deep HST imaging of the host galaxies of quasar pairs at high redshift, to search for interaction-induced morphological distortions, (iii) high-resolution radio imaging of X-shaped radio galaxies to search for interruption of the radio emission between core and wings, and (iv) multi-wavelength monitoring of blazars with (suspected) periodical variability, in particular an intense coverage of the next expected maximum of OJ 287.

Once LISA operates, it will provide us with valuable complementary information on the rate and merger history of binary black holes. Ideally, if LISA sources could be identified with optical counterparts, gravitational wave signals and observations across the electromagnetic spectrum could be combined to study BBH merger systems in detail.

It is a pleasure to thank Joan Centrella for organizing this very interesting workshop, Bill Keel for providing the optical image of NGC 6240, and Günther Hasinger and David Merritt for pleasant discussions.