Dynamical Model for Coherent Optical Control of a Single Confined Spin

We extend (Slavcheva, 2007) our new dynamical model (Slavcheva et al., 2006) for resonant coherent circularly polarized optical pulse interactions with charged semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) to include dissipation in the system through the spin relaxation dynamics. A generalized pseudospin master equation is derived for description of the optically-induced time evolution of spin coherences and spin populations in terms of the real state pseudospin (coherence) vector. The equation is solved self-consistently with the vector Maxwell equations for the optical wave propagation coupled via macroscopic medium polarization. Using the model we demonstrate numerically coherent readout of a single spin polarization state exploiting the high-intensity Rabi oscillations regime. We show that coherent spin-polarization control can be achieved by varying the excitation intensity through the pulse area which allows for differentiation between the time traces of the polarized photoluminescence, thus enabling high-fidelity schemes for single spin detection. Longest-lived spin coherence is achieved for odd multiples of pi-excitations.