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Coherent Optical Control of the Quantum State of a Single Quantum Dot

N.H. Bonadeo, John Erland, D. Gammon, D.S. Katzer, D. Park, and D.G. Steel, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Ml, and Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC.

Semiconductor quantum dots are nano-scale 3-D semiconductor heterostructures characterized by dimensions that are comparable to electronic scale lengths. In the case of excitons in GaAs this corresponds to tens of nanometers. The recent developments in nano-optical probing have resulted in the observation of many electronic and optical properties of these structures, which show great similarity to simple atomic systems including sharp line spectra and relatively simple nonlinear optical signatures.