Bistability of optically induced nuclear spin orientation in quantum dots

Russell, A. and Falko, Vladimir and Tartakovskii, A. I. and Skolnick, M. S. (2007) Bistability of optically induced nuclear spin orientation in quantum dots. Physical review B, 76 (19): 195310. ISSN 1550-235X

Abstract

We demonstrate that bistability of the nuclear spin polarization in optically pumped semiconductor quantum dots is a general phenomenon possible in dots with a wide range of parameters. In experiment, this bistability manifests itself via the hysteresis behavior of the electron Zeeman splitting as a function of either pump power or external magnetic field. In addition, our theory predicts that the nuclear polarization can strongly influence the charge dynamics in the dot leading to bistability in the average dot charge.