No Arabic abstract
We investigate theoretically the spectral and dynamical effects of the short-range exchange interaction between a single manganese (Mn) atom hosted by cylindrical CdTe quantum dots and its light-hole excitons or biexcitons. Our approach is based on the Kohn-Luttinger KP theory and configuration interaction method, the dynamics of the system in the presence of intraband relaxation being derived from the von Neumann-Lindblad equation. The complex structure of the light-hole exciton absorption spectrum reveals the exchange-induced exciton mixing and depends strongly on the Mn position. In particular, if the Mn atom is closer to the edges of the cylinder the bright and dark light-hole excitons are mixed by the hole-Mn exchange alone. Consequently, their populations exhibit exchange-induced Rabi oscillations which can be viewed as optical signatures of light-hole spin reversal. Similar results are obtained for mixed biexcitons, in this case the exchange-induced Rabi oscillations being damped by the intraband hole relaxation processes. The effect of light-hole heavy-hole mixing is also discussed.
The optical spectroscopy of a single InAs quantum dot doped with a single Mn atom is studied using a model Hamiltonian that includes the exchange interactions between the spins of the quantum dot electron-hole pair, the Mn atom and the acceptor hole. Our model permits to link the photoluminescence spectra to the Mn spin states after photon emission. We focus on the relation between the charge state of the Mn, $A^0$ or $A^-$, and the different spectra which result through either band-to-band or band-to-acceptor transitions. We consider both neutral and negatively charged dots. Our model is able to account for recent experimental results on single Mn doped InAs PL spectra and can be used to account for future experiments in GaAs quantum dots. Similarities and differences with the case of single Mn doped CdTe quantum dots are discussed.
Quantum dots (QDs) can act as convenient hosts of two-level quantum szstems, such as single electron spins, hole spins or excitons (bound electron-hole pairs). Due to quantum confinement, the ground state of a single hole confined in a QD usually has dominant heavy-hole (HH) character. For this reason light-hole (LH) states have been largely neglected, despite the fact that may enable the realilzation of coherent photon-to-spin converters or allow for faster spin manipulation compared to HH states. In this work, we use tensile strains larger than 0.3% to switch the ground state of excitons confined in high quality GaAs/AlGaAs QDs from the conventional HH- to LH-type. The LH-exciton fine structure is characterized by two in-plane-polarized lines and, ~400 micro-eV above them, by an additional line with pronounced out-of-plane oscillator strength, consistent with theoretical predictions based on atomistic empirical pseudopotential calculations and a simple mesoscopic model.
Quantum dots inserted inside semiconductor nanowires are extremely promising candidates as building blocks for solid-state based quantum computation and communication. They provide very high crystalline and optical properties and offer a convenient geometry for electrical contacting. Having a complete determination and full control of their emission properties is one of the key goals of nanoscience researchers. Here we use strain as a tool to create in a single magnetic nanowire quantum dot a light-hole exciton, an optically active quasiparticle formed from a single electron bound to a single light hole. In this frame, we provide a general description of the mixing within the hole quadruplet induced by strain or confinement. A multi-instrumental combination of cathodoluminescence, polarisation-resolved Fourier imaging and magneto-optical spectroscopy, allow us to fully characterize the hole ground state, including its valence band mixing with heavy hole states.
In this article we review our work on the dynamics and decoherence of electron and hole spins in single and double quantum dots. The first part, on electron spins, focuses on decoherence induced via the hyperfine interaction while the second part covers decoherence and relaxation of heavy-hole spins due to spin-orbit interaction as well as the manipulation of heavy-hole spin using electric dipole spin resonance.
We investigated optical spin orientation and dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) in individual self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) doped by a single Mn atom, a magnetic impurity providing a neutral acceptor A$^0$ with an effective spin $J=1$. We find that the spin of an electron photo-created in such a quantum dot can be efficiently oriented by a quasi-resonant circularly-polarized excitation. For the electron spin levels which are made quasi-degenerate by a magnetic field compensating the exchange interaction $Delta_e$ with A$^0$, there is however a full depolarization due the anisotropic part of the exchange. Still, in most studied QDs, the spin polarized photo-electrons give rise to a pronounced DNP which grows with a longitudinal magnetic field until a critical field where it abruptly vanishes. For some QDs, several replica of such DNP sequence are observed at different magnetic fields. This striking behavior is qualitatively discussed as a consequence of different exchange interactions experienced by the electron, driving the DNP rate via the energy cost of electron-nucleus spin flip-flops.