Optical studies of diluted magnetic semiconductor superlattices

Diluted magnetic semiconductors exhibit a variety of interesting and unique optical phenomena generated by the strong spin exchange interaction between charge carriers and the magnetic ions in the materials. Recent successes in epitaxial growth of these compounds have enabled study of the effects of quantum confinement, and of size dependence of the magnetic interactions, on the physics of these systems. This review of optical studies discusses static and time-resolved measurements, both of luminescence and of optically induced magnetization. We focus on the wide-gap, II-VI zincblende crystal Cd1-xMnxTe which is, apart from the magnetic species, much like GaAs. © 1989.