Coherent optical control of the spin of a single hole in an InAs/GaAs quantum dot

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Jan 6;108(1):017402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.017402. Epub 2012 Jan 5.

Abstract

We demonstrate coherent optical control of a single hole spin confined to an InAs/GaAs quantum dot. A superposition of hole-spin states is created by fast (10-100 ps) dissociation of a spin-polarized electron-hole pair. Full control of the hole spin is achieved by combining coherent rotations about two axes: Larmor precession of the hole spin about an external Voigt geometry magnetic field, and rotation about the optical axis due to the geometric phase shift induced by a picosecond laser pulse resonant with the hole-trion transition.