arXiv subjects

I. A. Akimov

Publications and source records attributed to I. A. Akimov.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Bragg-enhanced time-domain Brillouin scattering from a propagating acoustic grating

Generation and detection of coherent phonons in semiconductors by femtosecond optical pulses is a powerful tool for high-frequency acoustic control of their electronic properties. Here, we demonstrate a propagating one-dimensional acoustic grating in bulk semiconductors using above-band-gap excitation by a train of laser pulses with high repetition rate of 1 GHz. This approach enables shaping of the coherent acoustic phonon spectrum and leads to a significant enhancement of Brillouin light scattering at selected probe wavelengths in pump-probe configuration. We demonstrate this effect at a cryogenic temperature of 5 K in prototypical semiconductor systems, namely bulk crystalline GaAs and (Cd,Zn)Te, which serve as benchmark materials for the proposed method. The spectral dependence of the time-domain Brillouin light scattering amplitude exhibits resonant peaks at discrete probe wavelengths arising from Bragg reflection of the probe light by the propagating acoustic grating. A 10-30-fold resonant enhancement of the signal amplitude is observed for GaAs and (Cd,Zn)Te, determined by the finite spectral width of the probe pulse. With further spectral narrowing, enhancements of the order ~ 100-150 are expected, set by the number N of strain pulses in the acoustic grating within the sample and ultimately limited by the material parameters and sample thickness.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Structural phase transitions in double perovskite crystals studied by Brillouin light scattering

Inorganic lead-free double perovskites represent particular interest as non-toxic and stable material platform for optoelectronic applications. Here, we employ Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy to investigate the elastic properties and structural phase transitions in single crystals of Cs2AgBiBr6 and Cs2AgBiCl6. A complete set of elastic constants is determined from the Brillouin scattering measurements performed along three different crystallographic directions. Both materials exhibit similar elastic constants and weak elastic anisotropy in the cubic phase. At low temperatures, the lifting of degeneracy of transverse acoustic phonon modes is attributed to a lowering of crystal symmetry. From the temperature dependence of the acoustic phonon frequencies, we determine the structural phase transition temperature of about 43 K for Cs2AgBiCl6, compared to 122 K for the cubic-to-tetragonal phase transition in Cs2AgBiBr6.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Spin dynamics of excitons and carriers in mixed-cation MA$_{x}$FA$_{1-x}$PbI$_{3}$ perovskite crystals: alloy fluctuations probed by optical orientation

Optical spin orientation measured by time-resolved photoluminescence provides a powerful tool to probe the spin dynamics of excitons and charge carriers in perovskite semiconductors. The impact of alloy fluctuations on the spin dynamics of mixed-cation \MAFAPI{} perovskite single crystals is studied here experimentally. The optical orientation is measured under nonresonant excitation for crystals with $x = 0.1$, $0.4$, and $0.8$ at cryogenic temperatures and compared with data on \MAPI{} crystals. The high degree of exciton optical orientation of $75-80$\% for $x = 0.1$ and $0.8$ reduces to about 60\% for $x = 0.4$. A similar trend is observed for the carrier spin optical orientation. This behavior is attributed to enhanced scattering of free excitons and carriers in the alloys with increased compositional and structural disorder. From the Larmor spin precession measured from spin dynamics in an external magnetic field applied in the Voigt geometry, the electron and hole $g$-factors are evaluated. Their dependence on the band gap energy in \MAFAPI{} crystals follows the universal trend previously established for lead halide perovskites.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Quantum beats of exciton-polarons in CsPbI3 perovskite nanocrystals

Exciton-phonon interactions govern the energy level spectrum and thus the optical response in semiconductors. In this respect, lead-halide perovskite nanocrystals represent a unique system, for which the interaction with optical phonons is particularly strong, giving rise to a ladder of multiple exciton states which can be optically excited with femtosecond pulses. We establish a new regime of coherent exciton-polaron dynamics with exceptionally long coherence times (T2 ~300 ps) in an ensemble of CsPbI3 nanocrystals embedded in a glass matrix. Using transient two-pulse photon echo at 2 K temperature, we observe quantum beats between the exciton-polaron states. Within a four-level model, we directly quantify the exciton-phonon coupling strength through the Huang-Rhys factors of 0.05-0.1 and 0.02-0.04 for low-energy optical phonons with energies of 3.2 and 5.1 meV, respectively. The pronounced size dependence of both coupling strengths and phonon lifetimes offers a path to tune the optical transitions between polaron states and to tailor the coherent optical dynamics in perovskite semiconductors for solid-state quantum technologies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Temporal sorting of optical multi-wave-mixing processes in semiconductor quantum dots

Coherent control of ensembles of light emitters by means of multi-wave mixing processes is key for the realization of high capacity optical quantum memories and information processing devices. In this context, semiconductor quantum dots placed in optical microcavities represent excellent candidates to explore strong light-matter interactions beyond the limits of perturbative non-linear optics and control the unitary evolution of optically driven quantum systems. In this work, we demonstrate that a sequence of two optical picosecond pulses can be used to establish coherent control over the phase evolution of the ensemble of trions in (In,Ga)As quantum dots independent of their initial quantum state. Our approach is based on coherent transfer between degenerate multi-wave-mixing signals in the strong field limit where Rabi rotations in multi-level systems take place. In particular, we use the two-pulse photon echo sequence to uncover the coherent dynamics of the trion ensemble, whereas the areas of two additional control pulses serve as tuning knobs for adjusting the magnitude and timing of the coherent emission. Furthermore, we make use of the spin degeneracy of ground and excited state of trions to control the polarization state of the emitted signal. Surprisingly, we reveal that the use of optical control pulses, whose durations are comparable to the dephasing time of the ensemble, lifts the temporal degeneracy between wave-mixing processes of different order. This phenomenon is manifested in a significant modification of the temporal shape of the coherent optical response for strong optical fields. Lifting the temporal degeneracy allows to smoothly trace the transition from the perturbative to the regime of Rabi rotations and opens up new possibilities for the optical investigation of complex energy level structures in so far unexplored material systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Multiple Rabi rotations of trions in InGaAs quantum dots observed by photon echo spectroscopy with spatially shaped laser pulses

We study Rabi rotations arising in intensity-dependent photon echoes from an ensemble of self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. To achieve a uniform distribution of intensities within the excited ensemble, we introduce flattop intensity profiles of picosecond laser pulses. This allows us to overcome the damping of Rabi rotations imposed by the spatial inhomogeneity of Rabi frequencies by a Gaussian laser profile. Using photon echo polarimetry, we distinguish between the coherent optical responses from exciton and trion ensembles. Here, we demonstrate that a photo-induced charging of the quantum dots leads to a significant reduction of the number of neutral quantum dots under resonant excitation with intensive optical pulses with areas exceeding $\fracπ{2}$. The trion ensemble shows robust Rabi rotations when the area of the refocussing pulse is increased up to 5.5$π$. We analyze the remaining attenuation of Rabi rotations by theoretical modeling of excitation induced dephasing, inhomogeneity of dipole moments, and coupling to acoustic phonons. The latter is identified as the dominating mechanism resulting in a loss of optical coherence during the action of the involved optical pulses.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Trion magnetic polarons in (Cd,Mn)Te/(Cd,Mn,Mg)Te quantum wells

A trion magnetic polaron formed by the exchange interaction of a positively charged exciton (trion) with localized spins of Mn$^{2+}$ ions is found experimentally in a 4\,nm wide Cd$_{0.98}$Mn$_{0.02}$Te/Cd$_{0.78}$Mn$_{0.02}$Mg$_{0.2}$Te quantum well containing resident holes. The experiment is performed at a temperature of 1.6 K using resonant excitation of the trion with circularly polarized light. The trion is formed from a resident hole, which is in a hole magnetic polaron state, and a photogenerated electron-hole pair. The dynamical evolution from the hole magnetic polaron to the trion magnetic polaron is accompanied by a spin-flip of the electron, which results in negative circular polarization of the photoluminescence. The degree of circular polarization reaches $-8\%$ at zero magnetic field and strongly decreases in transverse magnetic fields exceeding 0.2 T. Our model considerations show that different localization sizes of the resident and photogenerated holes and the resulting difference in their exchange interaction with the Mn$^{2+}$ spins maintains Mn spin polarization. The resulting exchange field of Mn acting on the electron provides a robust spin polarization of the trion magnetic polaron. We evaluate the electron exchange energy in the T$^+$MP to be 0.19~meV, and the T$^+$MP binding energy to be about 0.5 - 1 meV.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Extending the time of coherent optical response in ensemble of singly-charged InGaAs quantum dots

The ability to extend the time scale of the coherent optical response from large ensembles of quantum emitters is highly appealing for applications in quantum information devices. In semiconductor nanostructures, spin degrees of freedom can be used as auxiliary, powerful tools to modify the coherent optical dynamics. Here, we apply this approach to negatively charged (In,Ga)As/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots which are considered as excellent quantum emitters with robust optical coherence and high bandwidth. We study 3-pulse spin-dependent photon echoes subject to moderate transverse magnetic fields up to 1 T. We demonstrate that the timescale of coherent optical response can be extended by at least an order of magnitude by the field. Without magnetic field, the photon echo decays with $T_ 2$ = 0.45 ns which is determined by the radiative lifetime of trions $T_1$ = 0.27 ns. In the presence of the transverse magnetic field, the decay of the photon echo signal is given by spin dephasing time of the ensemble of resident electrons $T_{2,e}$ ~ 4 ns. We demonstrate that the non-zero transverse g-factor of the heavy holes in the trion state plays a crucial role in the temporal evolution and magnetic field dependence of the long-lived photon echo signal.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Accumulation and control of spin waves in magnonic dielectric microresonators by a comb of ultrashort laser pulses

Spin waves in magnetic microresonators are at the core of modern magnonics. Here we demonstrate a new method of tunable excitation of different spin wave modes in magnetic microdisks by using a train of laser pulses coming at a repetition rate higher than the decay rate of spin precession. The microdisks are etched in a transparent bismuth iron garnet film and the light pulses influence the spins nonthermally through the inverse Faraday effect. The high repetition rate of the laser stimulus of 10 GHz establishes an interplay between the spin wave resonances in the frequency and momentum domains. As a result, scanning of the focused laser spot near the disk boarder changes interference pattern of the magnons and leads to a resonant dependence of the spin wave amplitude on the external magnetic field. Apart from that, we achieved a switching between volume and surface spin waves by a small variation of the external magnetic field.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Photon echo polarimetry of excitons and biexcitons in a CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$ perovskite single crystal

Lead halide perovskites show remarkable performance when used in photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices. However, the peculiarities of light-matter interactions in these materials in general are far from being fully explored experimentally and theoretically. Here we specifically address the energy level order of optical transitions and demonstrate photon echos in a methylammonium lead triiodide single crystal, thereby determining the optical coherence times $T_2$ for excitons and biexcitons at cryogenic temperature to be 0.79 ps and 0.67 ps, respectively. Most importantly, we have developed an experimental photon-echo polarimetry method that not only identifies the contributions from exciton and biexciton complexes, but also allows accurate determination of the biexciton binding energy of 2.4 meV, even though the period of quantum beats between excitons and biexcitons is much longer than the coherence times of the resonances. Our experimental and theoretical analysis methods contribute to the understanding of the complex mechanism of quasiparticle interactions at moderate pump density and show that even in high-quality perovskite crystals and at very low temperatures, inhomogeneous broadening of excitonic transitions due to local crystal potential fluctuations is a source of optical dephasing.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2021

Giant effective Zeeman splitting in a monolayer semiconductor realized by spin-selective strong light-matter coupling

Strong coupling between light and the fundamental excitations of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) are of foundational importance both to pure physics and to the understanding and development of future photonic nanotechnologies. Here we study the relationship between spin polarization of a 2DEG in a monolayer semiconductor, MoSe$_2$, and light-matter interactions modified by a zero-dimensional optical microcavity. We find robust spin-susceptibility of the 2DEG to simultaneously enhance and suppress trion-polariton formation in opposite photon helicities. This leads to observation of a giant effective valley Zeeman splitting for trion-polaritons (g-factor >20), exceeding the purely trionic splitting by over five times. Going further, we observe robust effective optical non-linearity arising from the highly non-linear behaviour of the valley-specific strong light-matter coupling regime, and allowing all-optical tuning of the polaritonic Zeeman splitting from 4 to >10 meV. Our experiments lay the groundwork for engineering quantum-Hall-like phases with true unidirectionality in monolayer semiconductors, accompanied by giant effective photonic non-linearities rooted in many-body exciton-electron correlations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Transverse magnetic routing of light emission in hybrid plasmonic-semiconductor nanostructures: Towards operation at room temperature

We study experimentally and theoretically the temperature dependence of transverse magnetic routing of light emission from hybrid plasmonic-semiconductor quantum well structures where the exciton emission from the quantum well is routed into surface plasmon polaritons propagating along a nearby semiconductor-metal interface. In II-VI and III-V direct band semiconductors the magnitude of routing is governed by the circular polarization of exciton optical transitions, that is induced by a magnetic field. For structures comprising a (Cd,Mn)Te/(Cd,Mg)Te diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum well we observe a strong directionality of the emission up to 15% at low temperature of 20 K and magnetic field of 485 mT due to giant Zeeman splitting of holes mediated via the strong exchange interaction with Mn$^{2+}$ ions. For increasing temperatures towards room-temperature the magnetic susceptibility decreases and the directionality strongly decreases to 4% at T = 45 K. We also propose an alternative design based on a non-magnetic (In,Ga)As/(In,Al)As quantum well structure, suitable for higher temperatures. According to our calculations, such structure can demonstrate emission directionality up to 5% for temperatures below 200 K and moderate magnetic fields of 1 T.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Strong enhancement of heavy-hole Landé factor $q$ in InGaAs symmetric quantum dots revealed by coherent optical spectroscopy

We reveal the existence of a large in-plane heavy-hole $g$ factor in symmetric self-assembled (001) (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum dots due to warping of valence band states. This warping dominates over the well-established mechanism associated with a reduced symmetry of quantum dots and the corresponding mixing of heavy-hole and light-hole states. The effect of band warping is manifested in a unique angular dependence of a trion photon echo signal on the direction of external magnetic field with respect to the sample axes. It results in a uniform magnetic-field-induced optical anisotropy for the entire quantum dot ensemble which is a prerequisite for realization of spin quantum memories and spin-photon entanglement in the ensemble.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Plasmon to exciton spin conversion in semiconductor-metal hybrid structures

Optical control of electronic spins is the basis for ultrafast spintronics: circularly polarized light in combination with spin-orbit coupling of the electronic states allows for spin manipulation in condensed matter. However, the conventional approach is limited to spin orientation along one particular orientation that is dictated by the direction of photon propagation. Plasmonics opens new capabilities, allowing one to tailor the light polarization at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate ultrafast optical excitation of electron spin on femtosecond time scales via plasmon to exciton spin conversion. By time-resolving the THz spin dynamics in a hybrid (Cd,Mn)Te quantum well structure covered with a metallic grating, we unambiguously determine the orientation of the photoexcited electron spins which is locked to the propagation direction of surface plasmon-polaritons. Using the spin of the incident photons as additional degree of freedom, one can orient the photoexcited electron spin at will in a two-dimensional plane.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Accurate photon echo timing by optical freezing of exciton dephasing and rephasing in quantum dots

Semiconductor quantum dots are excellent candidates for ultrafast coherent manipulation of qubits by laser pulses on picosecond timescales or even faster. In inhomogeneous ensembles a macroscopic optical polarization decays rapidly due to dephasing, which, however, is reversible in photon echoes carrying complete information about the coherent ensemble dynamics. Control of the echo emission time is mandatory for applications. Here, we propose a novel concept to reach this goal. In a two-pulse photon echo sequence, we apply an additional resonant control pulse with multiple of 2pi area. Depending on its arrival time, the control slows down dephasing or rephasing of the exciton ensemble during its action. We demonstrate for self-assembled (In,Ga)As quantum dots that the photon echo emission time can be retarded or advanced by 5 ps relative to its nominal appearance time without control. This versatile protocol may be used to obtain significantly longer temporal shifts for suitably tailored control pulses.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Effect of electric current on optical orientation of electrons in AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure

The effect of a lateral electric current on the photoluminescence H-band of an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure is investigated. The photoluminescence intensity and optical orientation of electrons contributing to the H-band are studied by means of continuous wave and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy and time-resolved Kerr rotation. It is shown that the H-band is due to recombination of the heavy holes localized at the heterointerface with photoexcited electrons attracted to the heterointerface from the GaAs layer. Two lines with significantly different decay times constitute the H-band: a short-lived high-energy one and a long-lived low-energy one. The high-energy line originates from recombination of electrons freely moving along the structure plane, while the low-energy one is due to recombination of donor-bound electrons near the interface. Application of the lateral electric field of ~ 100-200 V/cm results in a quenching of both lines. This quenching is due to a decrease of electron concentration near the heterointerface as a result of a photocurrent-induced heating of electrons in the GaAs layer. On the contrary, electrons near the heterointerface are effectively cooled, so the donors near the interface are not completely empty up to ~ 100 V/cm, which is in stark contrast with the case of bulk materials. The optical spin polarization of the donor-bound electrons near the heterointerface weakly depends on the electric field. Their polarization kinetics is determined by the spin dephasing in the hyperfine fields of the lattice nuclei. The long spin memory time (> 40 ns) can be associated with suppression of the Bir-Aronov-Pikus mechanism of spin relaxation for electrons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

The in-plane anisotropy of the hole $g$ factor in CdTe/(Cd,Mg)Te quantum wells studied by spin-dependent photon echoes

We use the two-pulse spin-dependent photon echo technique to study the in-plane hole spin anisotropy in a 20~nm-thick CdTe/Cd$_{0.76}$Mg$_{0.24}$Te single quantum well by exciting the donor-bound exciton resonance. We take advantage of the photon echo sensitivity to the relative phase of the electron and hole spin precession and study various interactions contributing to the hole in-plane spin properties. The main contribution is found to arise from the crystal cubic symmetry described by the Luttinger parameter $q=0.095$, which is substantially larger than the one theoretically expected for CdTe or found in other quantum well structures. Another contribution is induced by the strain within the quantum well. These two contributions manifest as different harmonics of the spin precession frequencies in the photon echo experiment, when strength and orientation of the Voigt magnetic field are varied. The magnitude of the effective in-plane hole $g$ factor is found to vary in the range $|\tilde{g_h}|$=0.125--0.160 in the well plane.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Quantum beats in the polarization of the spin-dependent photon echo from donor-bound excitons in CdTe/(Cd,Mg)Te quantum wells

We study the quantum beats in the polarization of the photon echo from donor-bound exciton ensembles in semiconductor quantum wells. To induce these quantum beats, a sequence composed of a circularly polarized and a linearly polarized picosecond laser pulse in combination with an external transverse magnetic field is used. This results in an oscillatory behavior of the photon echo amplitude, detected in the $σ^+$ and $σ^-$ circular polarizations, occurring with opposite phases relative to each other. The beating frequency is the sum of the Larmor frequencies of the resident electron and the heavy hole when the second pulse is polarized along the magnetic field. The beating frequency is, on the other hand, the difference of these Larmor frequencies when the second pulse is polarized orthogonal to the magnetic field. The measurement of both beating frequencies serves as a method to determine precisely the in-plane hole $g$ factor, including its sign. We apply this technique to observe the quantum beats in the polarization of the photon echo from the donor-bound excitons in a 20-nm-thick CdTe/Cd$_{0.76}$Mg$_{0.24}$Te quantum well. From these quantum beats we obtain the in-plane heavy hole $g$ factor $g_h=-0.143\pm0.005$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗