@article{discovery45961, note = {{\copyright} 2008 The American Physical Society}, volume = {100}, title = {Fast optical preparation, control, and readout of a single quantum dot spin}, month = {May}, number = {19}, year = {2008}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, author = {Ramsay, AJ and Boyle, SJ and Kolodka, RS and Oliveira, JBB and Skiba-Szymanska, J and Fox, AM and Skolnick, MS and Liu, HY and Hopkinson, M}, abstract = {We propose and demonstrate the sequential initialization, optical control, and readout of a single spin trapped in a semiconductor quantum dot. Hole spin preparation is achieved through ionization of a resonantly excited electron-hole pair. Optical control is observed as a coherent Rabi rotation between the hole and charged-exciton states, which is conditional on the initial hole spin state. The spin-selective creation of the charged exciton provides a photocurrent readout of the hole spin state. {\copyright} 2008 The American Physical Society.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.197401}, issn = {0031-9007} }