Semiconductor spintronics: manipulating electron and nuclear spins

Summary form only given. Control over spins in the solid state forms the basis for nascent spintronics and quantum information technologies. There is a growing interest in the use of electronic and nuclear spins in semiconductor nanostructures as a medium for the manipulation and storage of both classical and quantum information. Spin-based electronics offer remarkable opportunities for exploiting the robustness of quantum spin states by combining standard electronics with spin-dependent effects that arise from the interactions between electrons, nuclei, and magnetic fields. Here we provide an overview of recent developments in coherent electronic spin dynamics in semiconductors and quantum structures, including a discussion of temporally- and spatially-resolved magneto-optical measurements that reveal an interesting interplay between electronic and nuclear spins. These experiments investigate the electronic, photonic, and magnetic manipulation of electron and nuclear spins in a variety of semiconductor structures and focus on investigating the underlying physics for quantum information processing in the solid state.