Negatively charged excitons in semimagnetic CdSe/ZnSe/ZnMnSe quantum dots

Abstract

Low-temperature (T = 1.6 K) photoluminescence (PL) of individual CdSe/ZnSe/ZnMnSe quantum dots (QDs) with different magnitudes of the sp-d exchange interaction between the magnetic impurity ions and charge carriers has been studied in a magnetic field up to 12 T applied in the Faraday and Voigt geometry. The magnitude of the interaction was controlled by changing the fraction (ηe, h) of the squared wave function of charge carriers in the semimagnetic barrier by means of variation of the nonmagnetic (ZnSe) layer thickness. It is established that the sp-d exchange interaction leads to a change in the sign of the effective hole g factor even for ηe, h ∼ 5%, while further increase in the interaction magnitude is accompanied by a rapid growth in the magnitude of spin splitting for both electrons and holes. The quantum yield of PL exhibits a significant decrease due to nonradiative Auger recombination with the excitation of Mn ions only for ηe, h ∼ 12%, while the rate of the holes spin relaxation starts growing only for still higher ηe, h values. In a strong magnetic field perpendicular to the sample plane, the alignment of Mn spins leads to suppression of the Auger recombination only in the excited spin state. For a small rate of the hole spin relaxation, this leads to a rather unusual result: the emission from an excited trion state predominates in strong magnetic fields.