The transfer of nonequilibrium spin polarization between the electron and nuclear subsystems is studied in detail. Usually, a thermal orientation of nuclei in magnetic field is negligible due to their small magnetic moments, but if electron spins are optically oriented, efficient nuclear spin polarization can occur. The microscopic approach to the dynamical nuclear polarization effect based on the kinetic equation method, along with a phenomenological but very powerful description of dynamical nuclear polarization in terms of the nuclear spin temperature concept is given. In this way, one can account for the interaction between neighbouring nuclei without solving a complex many-body problem. The hyperfine interaction also induces the feedback of polarized nuclei on the electron spin system giving rise to a number of nonlinear effects: bistability of nuclear spin polarization and anomalous Hanle effect, dragging and locking of optical resonances in quantum dots. Theory is illustrated by experimental data on dynamical nuclear polarization.
Inhomogeneous nuclear spin polarization induced by helicity-modulated optical excitation of fluorine-bound electron spins in ZnSe
