No abstract

We analyse the influence of optically generated non-equilibrium phonons on the spin relaxation and effective spin temperature of an individual Cr atom inserted in a quantum dot. Using a three pulses pump-probe technique, we show that the spin relaxation measured in resonant optical pumping experiments strongly depends on the optical excitation conditions. We observe for an isolated Cr in the dark a heating time shorter than a few hundreds ns after an initial high power non-resonant excitation pulse. A cooling time larger than a few tens of µs, independent on the excitation, is obtained in the same experimental conditions. We show that a tunable spin-lattice coupling dependent on the density of non-equilibrium phonons can explain the observed dynamics. Low energy excitation conditions are found where the Cr spin states Sz=±1 can be efficiently populated by a non-resonant optical excitation, prepared and read-out by resonant optical pumping and conserved in the dark during a few µs. arXiv:1911.07639v1 [cond-mat.mes-hall]

We demonstrate radio-frequency tuning of the energy of individual CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots (QDs) by Surface Acoustic Waves (SAWs). Despite the very weak piezoelectric coefficient of ZnTe, SAW in the GHz range can be launched on a ZnTe surface using interdigitated transducers deposited on a c-axis oriented ZnO layer grown on ZnTe containing CdTe QDs. The photoluminescence (PL) of individual QDs is used as a nanometer-scale sensor of the acoustic strain field. The energy of QDs is modulated by SAW in the GHz range and leads to the characteristic broadening of time-integrated PL spectra. The dynamic modulation of the QD PL energy can also be detected in the time domain using phase-locked time domain spectroscopy. This technique is, in particular, used for monitoring complex local acoustic fields resulting from the superposition of two or more SAW pulses in a cavity. Under a magnetic field, the dynamic spectral tuning of a single QD by SAW can be used to generate single photons with alternating circular polarization controlled in the GHz range.