An enhancement of the Zeeman splitting as a result of the incorporation of paramagnetic Mn ions in ZnMnTe/ZnMgTe core/shell nanowires is reported. The studied structures are grown by gold-catalyst assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The near band edge emission of these structures, conspicuously absent in the case of uncoated ZnMnTe nanowires, is activated by the presence of ZnMgTe coating. Giant Zeeman splitting of this emission is studied in ensembles of nanowires with various average Mn concentrations of the order of a few percent, as well as in individual nanowires. Thus, we show convincingly that a strong spin sp-d coupling is indeed present in these structures.

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The question of the correlation between magnetization, band splittings, and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) in the fundamental gap region of dilute magnetic semiconductors is examined experimentally and through model calculations, taking the case of wurtzite Ga1−xFexN as an example. Magnetization and polarization-resolved reflectivity measurements have been performed down to 2 K and up to 7 T for x = 0.2%. Optical transitions originating from all three free excitons A, B and C, specific to the wurtzite structure, have been observed and their evolution with the magnetic field determined. It is demonstrated that the magnitude of the exciton splittings evaluated from reflectivity-MCD data can be overestimated by more than a factor of 2, as compared to the values obtained by describing the polarization-resolved reflectivity spectra with appropriate dielectric functions. A series of model calculations shows that the quantitative inaccuracy of MCD originates from a substantial influence of the magnetization-dependent exchange interactions not only on the spin splittings of excitons but also upon their linewidth and oscillator strength. At the same time, a method is proposed that allows to evaluate the field and temperature dependencies of the magnetization from MCD spectra. The accurate values of the excitonic splittings and of the magnetization reported here substantiate the magnitudes of the apparent sp − d exchange integrals in (Ga,Fe)N previously determined.

A simple fabrication method of silver (Ag) nanoislands on ZnO films is presented. Continuous wave and time-resolved photoluminescence and transmission are employed to investigate modifications of visible and UV emissions of ZnO brought about by coupling to localized surface plasmons residing on Ag nanoislands. The size of the nanoislands, determining their absorption and scattering efficiencies, is found to be an important factor governing plasmonic modification of optical response of ZnO films. The presence of the Ag nanoislands of appropriate dimensions causes a strong (threefold) increase in emission intensity and up to 1.5 times faster recombination. The experimental results are successfully described by model calculations within the Mie theory.

In this work we present a study of the temperature of the single magnetic atom embedded in a semiconductor quantum dot versus excitation power and magnetic field. This temperature is defined by the thermal distribution of spin states of single Mn ion, and results from its interaction with the neighborhood. This temperature was found to be much higher than the temperature of the thermal bath. Its dependence on the excitation power and magnetic field is discussed.

Simple electric transport versus T = 20-400 K in metallic n-GaAs annealed single crystals with Te impurity concentration ∼ (0.4-1.7) × 10 19 cm −3 , which is above the equilibrium doping limit, is reported and compared with modern theory of electron mobility in degenerated n-GaAs by Szmyd, Hanna, Majerfeld. An overcome of the equilibrium doping limit in annealed n-GaAs is manifested by a lowered electrical activation of Te donors and by an onset of ≈ 0.1-1 µm regions of local strain in the crystal lattice known from high resolution X-ray studies. These preliminary results of transport show that the electron mobility µ(T) measured for n-GaAs with local strains is not consistent with predictions of Szmyd et al. model for any degree of compensation assumed. This surprising result indicates that electric transport in materials above the equilibrium doping limit is not well understood assuming the scattering by ionized impurities. The nature of defects responsible for an observed strong reduction of free carrier concentration (here ≈ 80%) in annealed heavily doped n-GaAs seems not to be related with electrical compensation. We point here at the possible role of effects of free carrier scattering due to static lattice distortions (local strains) related to a chemical aggregation of impurity atoms. We also notice that transport in metallic n-GaAs with local strains shows features similar to a weak localization σxx ∝ log T .

Dynamics and mechanisms of photocreated carriers decay in individual core/shell (Zn,Mn)Te/(Zn,Mg)Te semimagnetic nanowires are studied with a high temporal resolution. Exciton lifetime determined to 44 ± 5 ps is found to increase to 78 ± 5 ps upon application of magnetic field of up to 10 T. A quantitative modeling attributes the effects observed in time-resolved and time-integrated micro-photoluminescence to the magnetic field induced quenching of exchange Auger type, non-radiative carrier recombination related to Mn2+ ions. The reported properties of the semimagnetic nanowires are promising for their implementation in high-speed devices exploiting light-induced conductivity.