Dynamics of a Mn spin coupled to a single hole confined in a quantum dot

Using the emission of the positively charged exciton as a probe, we analyze the dynamics of the optical pumping and the dynamics of the relaxation of a Mn spin exchange coupled with a confined hole spin in a II-VI semiconductor quantum dot. The hole-Mn spin can be efficiently initialized in a few tens of ns under optical injection of spin-polarized carriers. We show that this optical pumping process and its dynamics are controlled by electron-Mn flip-flops within the positively charged exciton-Mn complex. The pumping mechanism and its magnetic field dependence are theoretically described by a model including the dynamics of the electron-Mn complex in the excited state and the dynamics of the hole-Mn complex in the ground state of the positively charged quantum dot. We measure at zero magnetic field a spin-relaxation time of the hole-Mn spin in the mu s range or shorter. This hole-Mn spin relaxation is induced by the presence of valence-band mixing in self-assembled quantum dots.