Kerr effect induced by exchange interaction of electrons separated by a tunnel barrier in a double quantum well

Abstract

In a structure with two tunnel-coupled quantum wells of different widths, the spin dynamics resulting from resonant pulsed optical pumping of the narrow-well exciton includes the wide-well electron magnetization dynamics. Our analysis shows that the effect is driven by electron exchange between narrow-well excitons and spin-polarized electrons in the wide well. A theoretical model of the spin Kerr effect has been developed accounting for the interwell electron spin exchange. In the studied double-well structure with CdTe and Cd$_{0.98}$Mn$_{0.02}$Te quantum wells and a well-separating barrier thickness of 5 monolayers (1.6 nm), the model accurately describes the experimental results and allows us to estimate the interwell electron exchange constant as $\delta_{e} \approx 0.9\times10^{-15}~\textrm{eV}~\textrm{cm}^{2}$.