Coherent spin dynamics of electrons and excitons in nanostructures

The studies of spin phenomena in semiconductor low dimensional systems have grown into the rapidly developing area of the condensed matter physics: spintronics. The most urgent problems in this area, both fundamental and applied, are the creation of charge carrier spin polarization and its detection as well as electron spin control by nonmagnetic methods. Here we present a review of recent achievements in the studies of spin dynamics of electrons, holes and their complexes in the pump-probe method. The microscopic mechanisms of spin orientation of charge carriers and their complexes by short circularly polarized optical pulses and the formation processes of the spin signals of Faraday and Kerr rotation of the probe pulse polarization plane as well as induced ellipticity are discussed. A special attention is paid to the comparison of theoretical concepts with experimental data obtained on the n-type quantum well and quantum dot array samples.Comment: Review, 25 pages, 18 figures; Physics of the Solid State 54, 1 (2012

Spin fluctuations of non-equilibrium electrons and excitons in semiconductors

Effects related with deviations from thermodynamic equilibrium take a special place in the modern physics. Among those, non-equilibrium phenomena in quantum systems attract the highest interest. To date, the experimental technique of spin noise spectroscopy has became quite widespread, which makes possible to observe spin fluctuations of charge carriers in semiconductors both in equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions. It calls for development of the theory of spin fluctuations of electrons and electron-hole complexes for non-equilibrium conditions. In this paper we consider a range of physical situations where a deviation from an equilibrium becomes pronounced in the spin noise. A general method of calculation of electron and exciton spin fluctuations in non-equilibrium state is proposed. A short review of theoretical and experimental results in this area is given.Comment: Special JETP issue dedicated to the 85th birthday of Prof. L. V. Keldysh; 12 pages, 7 figure

Fine structure of two-electron states in single and double quantum dots

Energy spectrum fine structure of triplet two-electron states is investigated theoretically. Spin-orbit interaction induced terms in the effective Hamiltonian of electron-electron interaction are derived for zinc-blende lattice semiconductor nanostructures: quantum wells and quantum dots. The effects of bulk and structural inversion asymmetry are taken into account. Simple analytical expressions describing the splittings of the two-electron states localized in a single quantum dot and in a lateral double quantum dot are derived. The spin degeneracy of triplet states is shown to be completely lifted by the spin-orbit interaction. An interplay of the conduction band spin splitting and the spin-orbit terms in electron-electron interaction is discussed. The photoluminescence spectra of hot trions and of doubly charged excitons are calculated and are shown to reveal the fine structure of two-electron states.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Spin noise of localized electrons: Interplay of hopping and hyperfine interaction

The theory of spin fluctuations is developed for an ensemble of localized electrons taking into account both hyperfine interaction of electron and nuclear spins and electron hopping between the sites. The analytical expression for the spin noise spectrum is derived for arbitrary relation between the electron spin precession frequency in the field of the nuclear fluctuation and the hopping rate. An increase in the hopping rate results in the drastic change of the spin noise spectrum. The effect of an external magnetic field is briefly addressed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Phonon wind and drag of excitons in monolayer semiconductors

We study theoretically the non-equilibrium exciton transport in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides. We consider the situation where excitons interact with non-equilibrium phonons, e.g., under the conditions of localized excitation where a ``hot spot'' in formed. We develop the theory of the exciton drag by the phonons and analyze in detail the regimes of diffusive propagation of phonons and ballistic propagation of phonons where the phonon wind is formed. We demonstrate that a halo-like spatial distribution of excitons akin observed in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 207401 (2018)] can be formed as a result of the exciton drag by non-equilibrium phonons or Seebeck effect.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Spin-dependent coherent transport of two-dimensional excitons

We propose a theory of interference contributions to the two-dimensional exciton diffusion coefficient. The theory takes into account four spin states of the heavy-hole exciton. An interplay of the single particle, electron and hole, spin splittings with the electron-hole exchange interaction gives rise to either localization or antilocalization behavior of excitons depending on the system parameters. Possible experimental manifestations of exciton interference are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Linear optics, Raman scattering, and spin noise spectroscopy

Spin noise spectroscopy (SNS) is a new method for studying magnetic resonance and spin dynamics based on measuring the Faraday rotation noise. In strong contrast with methods of nonlinear optics, the spectroscopy of spin noise is considered to be essentially nonperturbative. Presently, however, it became clear that the SNS, as an optical technique, demonstrates properties lying far beyond the bounds of conventional linear optics. Specifically, the SNS shows dependence of the signal on the light power density, makes it possible to penetrate inside an inhomogeneously broadened absorption band and to determine its homogeneous width, allows one to realize an effective pump-probe spectroscopy without any optical nonlinearity, etc. This may seem especially puzzling when taken into account that SNS can be considered just as a version of Raman spectroscopy, which is known to be deprived of such abilities. In this paper, we clarify this apparent inconsistency.Comment: 7+ pages, 3 figure

Topological spin phases of trapped Rydberg excitons in Cu2_2O

We study theoretically Rydberg excitons in one-dimensional chains of traps in Cu$_2$O coupled via the van der Waals interaction. The triplet of optically active $p$-shell states acts as an effective spin-$1$ and the interactions between the excitons are strongly spin-dependent. We predict that the system {has the} topological Haldane phase with the diluted antiferromagnetic order, long-range string correlations, and finite excitation gap. We also analyze the effect of the trap geometry and interactions anisotropy on the Rydberg exciton spin states and demonstrate that a rich spin phase diagram can be realized showing high tunability of the Rydberg exciton platform.Comment: main text (5 pages, 4 figures) + supplement (5 pages, 5 figures

Cavity polaritons: Classical behaviour of a quantum parametric oscillator

We address theoretically the optical parametric oscillator based on semiconductor cavity exciton-polaritons under a pulsed excitation. A "hyperspin" formalism is developed which allows, in the case of large number of polaritons, to reduce quantum dynamics of the parametric oscillator wavefunction to the Liouville equation for the classical probability distribution. Implications for the statistics of polariton ensembles are analyzed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Quantum and classical multiple scattering effects in spin dynamics of cavity polaritons

The transport properties of exciton-polaritons are studied with allowance for their polarization. Both classical multiple scattering effects and quantum effects such as weak localization are taken into account in the framework of a generalized kinetic equation. The longitudinal-transverse (TE-TM) splitting of polariton states which plays role analogous to the spin-orbit splitting in electron systems is taken into account. The developed formalism is applied to calculate the particle and spin diffusion coefficients of exciton-polaritons, spin relaxation rates and the polarization conversion efficiency under the conditions of the optical spin Hall effect. In contrast to the electron systems, strong spin splitting does not lead to the antilocalization behavior of the particle diffusion coefficient, while quantum corrections to spin diffusion and polarization conversion can be both negative and positive depending on the spin splitting value.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure