Abstract
In a structure with two tunnel-coupled quantum wells of different widths, the spin dynamics resulting from resonant pulsed optical pumping of the narrow-well exciton includes the wide-well electron magnetization dynamics. Our analysis shows that the effect is driven by electron exchange between narrow-well excitons and spin-polarized electrons in the wide well. A theoretical model of the spin Kerr effect has been developed accounting for the interwell electron spin exchange. In the studied double-well structure with CdTe and Cd_0.98Mn_0.02Te quantum wells and a well-separating barrier thickness of 5 monolayers (1.6 nm), the model accurately describes the experimental results and allows us to estimate the interwell electron exchange constant as δ_e ≈ 0.9×10⁻¹⁵ eV cm².