Ultrafast spin dynamics in diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum wells

We investigated the well-width dependence of the carrier spin relaxation in CdTe/Cd1-xMnxTe quantum wells. We found that the electron-spin relaxation time decreases dramatically with decreasing well width, while the heavy-hole spin relaxation is not changed so much with the well width. The electron-spin relaxation rate is fairly proportional to the overlap between the electron wave function and the Mn ions in the magnetic barrier layer. This suggests that the electron spin scattering is caused by the interaction with Mn2+ ions. From the analysis of the spin-dependent spectral change, it was found that the peak shift reflects the population dynamics more directly. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.