Switching the sign of photon induced exchange interactions in semiconductor microcavities with finite quality factors

TL;DR

This paper studies how the sign of photon-induced exchange interactions in semiconductor microcavities can be switched by tuning the cavity quality factor, revealing a resonance that causes a transition between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions.

Contribution

It introduces an exact quantum mechanical model incorporating finite cavity quality factors to demonstrate controllable spin interaction switching in quantum dot microcavities.

Findings

Resonance causes abrupt ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic transition.

Switching depends on light-matter coupling, exchange interaction, detuning, and Q factor.

For realistic parameters, the exchange interaction remains robust with high-quality cavities.

Abstract

We investigate coupling of localized spins in a semiconductor quantum dot embedded in a microcavity with a finite quality factor. The lowest cavity mode and the quantum dot exciton are coupled forming a polariton, whereas excitons interact with localized spins via exchange. The finite quality of the cavity Q is incorporated in the model Hamiltonian by adding an imaginary part to the photon frequency. The Hamiltonian, which treats photons, spins and excitons quantum mechanically, is solved exactly. Results for a single polariton clearly demonstrate the existence of a resonance, sharper as the temperature decreases, that shows up as an abrupt change between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic indirect anisotropic exchange interaction between localized spins. The origin of this spin-switching finite-quality-factor effect is discussed in detail remarking on its dependence on model parameters, i.e., light-matter coupling, exchange interaction between impurities, detuning and quality factor. For parameters corresponding to the case of a (Cd,Mn)Te quantum dot, the resonance shows up for Q around 70 and detuning around 10 meV. In addition, we show that, for such a quantum dot, and the best cavities actually available (quality factors better than 200) the exchange interaction is scarcely affected.