  Because of their weak coupling to the electromagnetic field dark excitons in
semiconductor quantum dots possess extremely long lifetimes, which makes them
attractive candidates for quantum information processing. On the other hand,
preparation and manipulation of dark states is challenging, because commonly
used optical excitation mechanisms are not applicable. We propose a new,
efficient mechanism for the deterministic preparation of the dark exciton
exploiting the application of a tilted magnetic field and the optical
excitation with a chirped, i.e., frequency modulated, laser pulse.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics