Dynamic nuclear polarization in InGaAs/GaAs and GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots under nonresonant ultralow-power optical excitation

We study experimentally the dependence of dynamic nuclear spin polarization on the power of nonresonant optical excitation in two types of individual neutral semiconductor quantum dots: InGaAs/GaAs and GaAs/AlGaAs. We show that the mechanism of nuclear spin pumping via second-order recombination of optically forbidden (“dark”) exciton states recently reported in InP/GaInP quantum dots [E. A. Chekhovich et al., Phys. Rev. B 83, 125318 (2011)] is relevant for material systems considered in this work. In the InGaAs/GaAs dots this nuclear spin polarization mechanism is particularly pronounced, resulting in Overhauser shifts up to ∼80 μeV achieved at ultralow optical excitation power, ∼1000 times smaller than the power required to saturate ground state excitons. The Overhauser shifts observed at ultralow power pumping in the interface GaAs/AlGaAs dots are generally found to be smaller (up to ∼40 μeV). Furthermore in GaAs/AlGaAs we observe dot-to-dot variation and even sign reversal of the Overhauser shift which is attributed to the dark-bright exciton mixing originating from electron-hole exchange interaction in dots with reduced symmetry. Nuclear spin polarization degrees reported in this work under ultralow-power optical pumping are comparable to those achieved by techniques such as resonant optical pumping or above-gap pumping with high-power circularly polarized light. Dynamic nuclear polarization via second-order recombination of “dark” excitons may become a useful tool in single quantum dot applications, where manipulation of the nuclear spin environment or electron spin is required.