%0 Journal Article %@ 0031-9007 %A Ramsay, AJ %A Boyle, SJ %A Kolodka, RS %A Oliveira, JBB %A Skiba-Szymanska, J %A Fox, AM %A Skolnick, MS %A Liu, HY %A Hopkinson, M %D 2008 %F discovery:45961 %J Physical Review Letters %N 19 %T Fast optical preparation, control, and readout of a single quantum dot spin %U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/45961/ %V 100 %X 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. © 2008 The American Physical Society. %Z © 2008 The American Physical Society