  Manipulation of the spin-states of a quantum dot by purely electrical means
is a highly desirable property of fundamental importance for the development of
spintronic devices such as spin-filters, spin-transistors and single-spin
memory as well as for solid-state qubits. An electrically gated quantum dot in
the Coulomb blockade regime can be tuned to hold a single unpaired spin-1/2,
which is routinely spin-polarized by an applied magnetic field. Using
ferromagnetic electrodes, however, the properties of the quantum dot become
directly spin-dependent and it has been demonstrated that the ferromagnetic
electrodes induce a local exchange-field which polarizes the localized spin in
the absence of any external fields. Here we report on the experimental
realization of this tunneling-induced spin-splitting in a carbon nanotube
quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic nickel-electrodes. We study the
intermediate coupling regime in which single-electron states remain well
defined, but with sufficiently good tunnel-contacts to give rise to a sizable
exchange-field. Since charge transport in this regime is dominated by the
Kondo-effect, we can utilize this sharp many-body resonance to read off the
local spin-polarization from the measured bias-spectroscopy. We show that the
exchange-field can be compensated by an external magnetic field, thus restoring
a zero-bias Kondo-resonance, and we demonstrate that the exchange-field itself,
and hence the local spin-polarization, can be tuned and reversed merely by
tuning the gate-voltage. This demonstrates a very direct electrical control
over the spin-state of a quantum dot which, in contrast to an applied magnetic
field, allows for rapid spin-reversal with a very localized addressing.
