Resonant optical pumping of a Mn spin in a strain free quantum dot

Abstract

We report on the spin properties of individual Mn atoms in II-VI semiconductor strain free quantum dots. Strain free Mn-doped CdTe quantum dots are formed by width fluctuations in thin quantum wells lattice matched on a CdTe substrate. These quantum dots permit to optically probe and address any spin state of a Mn atom in a controlled strain environment. The absence of strain induced magnetic anisotropy prevents an optical pumping of the Mn spin at zero magnetic field. Thus, a large photoluminescence is obtained under resonant optical excitation of the exciton-Mn complex. An efficient optical pumping of the coupled electronic and nuclear spins of the Mn is restored under a weak magnetic field. The observed reduction of the resonant photoluminescence intensity under magnetic field is well described by a model including the hyperfine coupling and a residual crystal field splitting of the Mn atom. Finally, we show that the second order correlation function of the resonant photoluminescence presents a large photon bunching at short delay which is a probe of the dynamics of coupled electronic and nuclear spins of the Mn atom.