Optical orientation of excitons and carriers in quantum dots

Abstract

The optical orientation (optical pumping) of excitons and carriers in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) is discussed. A brief review of main experimental studies on optical pumping is given. We discuss different manifestations of size quantization on spin phenomena - enhancement of the electron-hole exchange interaction, hyperfine interaction between electron and nuclear spins, etc. The peculiarities of spin polarization in doped QDs are considered. It is demonstrated that the Hanle effect is a powerful technique for the study of spin dynamics. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.