Coherent optical control of the spin of a single hole in a quantum dot

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the coherent optical manipulation of a single hole spin in a quantum dot, combining fast electron-hole pair dissociation and optical control techniques to achieve full spin control.

Contribution

It introduces a method for full optical control of a single hole spin in a quantum dot using combined magnetic and optical rotations.

Findings

Successful creation of a superposition of hole spin states

Achieved full control of the hole spin via combined rotations

Demonstrated coherent manipulation within 10-100 ps timescale

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.