831 research outputs found
Optical alignment and polarization conversion of neutral exciton spin in individual InAs/GaAs quantum dots
We investigate exciton spin memory in individual InAs/GaAs self-assembled
quantum dots via optical alignment and conversion of exciton polarization in a
magnetic field. Quasiresonant phonon-assisted excitation is successfully
employed to define the initial spin polarization of neutral excitons. The
conservation of the linear polarization generated along the bright exciton
eigenaxes of up to 90% and the conversion from circular- to linear polarization
of up to 47% both demonstrate a very long spin relaxation time with respect to
the radiative lifetime. Results are quantitatively compared with a model of
pseudo-spin 1/2 including heavy-to-light hole mixing.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Microphotoluminescence study of disorder in ferromagnetic (Cd,Mn)Te quantum well
Microphotoluminescence mapping experiments were performed on a modulation
doped (Cd,Mn)Te quantum well exhibiting carrier induced ferromagnetism. The
zero field splitting that reveals the presence of a spontaneous magnetization
in the low-temperature phase, is measured locally; its fluctuations are
compared to those of the spin content and of the carrier density, also measured
spectroscopically in the same run. We show that the fluctuations of the carrier
density are the main mechanism responsible for the fluctuations of the
spontaneous magnetization in the ferromagnetic phase, while those of the Mn
spin density have no detectable effect at this scale of observation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
p-Type doping of II-VI heterostructures from surface states: application to ferromagnetic CdMnTe quantum wells
We present a study of p-type doping of CdTe and CdMnTe quantum
wells from surface states. We show that this method is as efficient as usual
modulation doping with nitrogen acceptors, and leads to hole densities
exceeding cm. Surface doping was successfully applied
to obtain carrier-induced ferromagnetism in a CdMnTe quantum well.
The observed temperature dependence of photoluminescence spectra, and the
critical temperature, correspond well to those previously reported for
ferromagnetic quantum wells doped with nitrogen.Comment: 4 figure
Optical manipulation of a single Mn spin in a CdTe-based quantum dot
A system of two coupled CdTe quantum dots, one of them containing a single Mn
ion, was studied in continuous wave and modulated photoluminescence,
photoluminescence excitation, and photon correlation experiments. Optical
writing of information in the spin state of the Mn ion has been demonstrated,
using orientation of the Mn spin by spin-polarized carriers transferred from
the neighbor quantum dot. Mn spin orientation time values from 20 ns to 100 ns
were measured, depending on the excitation power. Storage time of the
information in the Mn spin was found to be enhanced by application of a static
magnetic field of 1 T, reaching hundreds of microseconds in the dark. Simple
rate equation models were found to describe correctly static and dynamical
properties of the system.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Femtosecond study of the interplay between excitons, trions, and carriers in (Cd,Mn)Te quantum wells
We present an absorption study of the neutral and positively charged exciton
(trion) under the influence of a femtosecond, circularly polarized, resonant
pump pulse. Three populations are involved: free holes, excitons, and trions,
all exhibiting transient spin polarization. In particular, a polarization of
the hole gas is created by the formation of trions. The evolution of these
populations is studied, including the spin flip and trion formation processes.
The contributions of several mechanisms to intensity changes are evaluated,
including phase space filling and spin-dependent screening. We propose a new
explanation of the oscillator strength stealing phenomena observed in p-doped
quantum wells, based on the screening of neutral excitons by charge carriers.
We have also found that binding heavy holes into charged excitons excludes them
from the interaction with the rest of the system, so that oscillator strength
stealing is partially blockedComment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Excitonic giant Zeeman effect in GaN:Mn^3+
We describe a direct observation of the excitonic giant Zeeman splitting in
(Ga,Mn)N, a wide-gap III-V diluted magnetic semiconductor. Reflectivity and
absorption spectra measured at low temperatures display the A and B excitons,
with a shift under magnetic field due to s,p-d exchange interactions. Using an
excitonic model, we determine the difference of exchange integrals between
Mn^3+ and free carriers in GaN, N_0(alpha-beta)=-1.2 +/- 0.2 eV. Assuming a
reasonable value of alpha, this implies a positive sign of beta which
corresponds to a rarely observed ferromagnetic interaction between the magnetic
ions and the holes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Correlated Photon Emission from a Single II-VI Quantum Dot
We report correlation and cross-correlation measurements of photons emitted
under continuous wave excitation by a single II-VI quantum dot (QD) grown by
molecular-beam epitaxy. A standard technique of microphotoluminescence combined
with an ultrafast photon correlation set-up allowed us to see an antibunching
effect on photons emitted by excitons recombining in a single CdTe/ZnTe QD, as
well as cross-correlation within the biexciton ()-exciton ()
radiative cascade from the same dot. Fast microchannel plate photomultipliers
and a time-correlated single photon module gave us an overall temporal
resolution of 140 ps better than the typical exciton lifetime in II-VI QDs of
about 250ps.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Appl. Phys. Let
Antireflective photonic structure for coherent nonlinear spectroscopy of single magnetic quantum dots
This work presents epitaxial growth and optical spectroscopy of CdTe quantum
dots (QDs) in (Cd,Zn,Mg)Te barriers placed on the top of (Cd,Zn,Mg)Te
distributed Bragg reflector. The formed photonic mode in our half-cavity
structure permits to enhance the local excitation intensity and extraction
efficiency of the QD photoluminescence, while suppressing the reflectance
within the spectral range covering the QD transitions. This allows to perform
coherent, nonlinear, resonant spectroscopy of individual QDs. The coherence
dynamics of a charged exciton is measured via four-wave mixing, with the
estimated dephasing time ps. The same structure contains
QDs doped with single Mn ions, as detected in photoluminescence spectra.
Our work therefore paves the way toward investigating and controlling an
exciton coherence coupled, via ,- exchange interaction, with an
individual spin of a magnetic dopant.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Origin of the anomalous magnetic circular dichroism spectral shape in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As: Impurity bands inside the band gap
The electronic structure of a prototype dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS),
Ga1-xMnxAs, is studied by magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy. We
prove that the optical transitions originated from impurity bands cause the
strong positive MCD background. The MCD signal due to the E0 transition from
the valence band to the conduction band is negative indicating that the p-d
exchange interactions between the p-carriers and d-spin is antiferromagnetic.
The negative E0 MCD signal also indicates that the hole-doping of the valence
band is not so large as previously assumed. The impurity bands seem to play
important roles for the ferromagnetism of Ga1-xMnxAs.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
Single spin optical read-out in CdTe/ZnTe quantum dot studied by photon correlation spectroscopy
Spin dynamics of a single electron and an exciton confined in CdTe/ZnTe
quantum dot is investigated by polarization-resolved correlation spectroscopy.
Spin memory effects extending over at least a few tens of nanoseconds have been
directly observed in magnetic field and described quantitatively in terms of a
simple rate equation model. We demonstrate an effective (68%) all-optical
read-out of the single carrier spin state through probing the degree of
circular polarization of exciton emission after capture of an oppositely
charged carrier. The perturbation introduced by the pulsed optical excitation
serving to study the spin dynamics has been found to be the main source of the
polarization loss in the read-out process. In the limit of low laser power the
read-out efficiency extrapolates to a value close to 100%. The measurements
allowed us as well to determine neutral exciton spin relaxation time ranging
from 3.4 +/- 0.1 ns at B = 0 T to 16 +/- 3 ns at B = 5 T.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.
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