Optical initialization and dynamics of spin in a remotely doped quantum well

The excitation of electron spin polarization and coherence by picosecond light pulses and their dynamics in a wide remotely doped quantum well are studied theoretically and experimentally. Assuming that all electrons in the quantum well are localized, the theory considers the resonant interaction of light pulses with the four-level system formed by the electron spins of the ground state and the hole spins of the trion excited state. The theory describes the effects of spontaneous emission, a transverse magnetic field and hole spin relaxation on the dynamics detected by the Kerr rotation of a probe pulse. Time resolved Kerr rotation experiments were carried out on a remotely doped 14 nm GaAs quantum well in the frequency range of optical transitions to the heavy hole (HH) trion and to the light-hole (LH) trion degenerate with the HH exciton. The experiments on the resonant excitation of the HH trion show a very slow heavy hole spin relaxation and, consequently, a weak electron spin polarization after the trion relaxation. In contrast, the resonant excitation of the LH trion/HH exciton results in a fast hole spin relaxation that increases electron spin polarization.