Zero-field spin quantum beats in charged quantum dots

Spins of resident electrons in charged quantum dots (QD's) act as local magnets inducing the Zeeman splitting of excitons trapped into dots. This is evidenced by the observation of quantum beats in the linearly polarized time-resolved photoluminescence of a biased array of self-assembled InP QD's. An external magnetic field is found to shorten the spin beats' decay time keeping constant the frequency of the beats. A model using the pseudospin formalism allows one to attribute the observed quantum beats to the radiative decay of hot trions having two electrons that occupy different energy levels in a QD.