Fast and high-fidelity optical initialization of spin state of an electron in a semiconductor quantum dot using light-hole-trion states

•Fast initialization of spin state of an electron in a quantum dot is demonstrated using light-hole-trion states.•The use of light-hole-trion states enables the faster initialization compared to the commonly used heavy-hole-trion states.•The effects of heavy-hole and light-hole mixings on the fidelity of spin state initialization are analyzed.

We theoretically show that under the Faraday geometry fast and high-fidelity optical initialization of electron spin (ES) state in a semiconductor quantum dot (SQD) can be realized by utilizing the light-hole (LH)-trion states. Initialization is completed within the time scale of ten nanoseconds with high fidelity, and the initialization laser pulse can be linearly, right-circularly, or left-circularly polarized. Moreover, we demonstrate that the time required for initialization can be further shortened down to a few hundreds of picoseconds if we introduce a pillar-microcavity to promote the relaxation of a LH-trion state towards the desired ES state through the Purcell effect. We also clarify the role of heavy-hole and light-hole mixing induced transitions on the fidelity of ES state initialization.