Effect of momentum relaxation on exciton spin dynamics in diluted magnetic semiconductor ZnMnSe CdSe superlattices

• cw hot photoluminescence (PL) complemented by transient PL measurements is employed to evaluate momentum and spin relaxation of heavy hole (HH) excitons in ZnMnSe CdSe superlattices. The rate of acoustic-phonon assisted momentum relaxation is concluded to be comparable to the total rate of exciton decay processes, about (2-3) × 1010 s-1, independent of applied magnetic fields. In magnetic fields when the Zeeman splitting ? of the exciton states is below the energy of the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon (?LO), a surprisingly strong suppression of spin relaxation rate from the bottom of the upper spin band is observed, which becomes comparable to that of momentum scattering via acoustic phonons. On the other hand, dramatic acceleration of the spin relaxation process by more than one order of magnitude is found for the excitons with a high momentum K. The findings are interpreted as being due to electron and hole spin flip processes via exchange interaction with isolated Mn2+ ions. Experimental evidence for the efficient interaction between the hot excitons and Mn impurities is also provided by the observation of spin flip transitions within Mn2+ - Mn2+ pairs that accompany the momentum relaxation of the hot HH excitons. In higher magnetic fields ?= ?LO, abrupt shortening of the spin flip time is observed. It indicates involvement of a new and more efficient spin relaxation process and is attributed to direct LO-assisted exciton spin relaxation with a subpicosecond spin relaxation time. © 2005 The American Physical Society.

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