Atomic-like spin noise in solid-state demonstrated with manganese in cadmium telluride

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates atomic-like spin noise detection in solid-state manganese-doped cadmium telluride using Kerr rotation, revealing hyperfine interactions and local symmetry, with potential for high-sensitivity spin microscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of spin noise spectroscopy to solid-state manganese ions in CdTe, enabling non-perturbative detection of hyperfine interactions.

Findings

Detection of Zeeman transitions within hyperfine multiplets

Linewidths close to the dipolar limit

High sensitivity enabling few-spin detection

Abstract

Spin noise spectroscopy is an optical technique which can probe spin resonances non-perturbatively. First applied to atomic vapours, it revealed detailed information about nuclear magnetism and the hyperfine interaction. In solids, this approach has been limited to carriers in semiconductor heterostructures. Here we show that atomic-like spin fluctuations of Mn ions diluted in CdT e (bulk and quantum wells) can be detected through the Kerr rotation associated to excitonic transitions. Zeeman transitions within and between hyperfine multiplets are clearly observed in zero and small magnetic fields and reveal the local symmetry because of crystal field and strain. The linewidths of these resonances are close to the dipolar limit. The sensitivity is high enough to open the way towards the detection of a few spins in systems where the decoherence due to nuclear spins can be suppressed by isotopic enrichment, and towards spin resonance microscopy with important applications in biology and materials science.