Recombination processes in strain-induced InGaAs quantum dots

We have performed time-integrated and time-resolved photoluminescence experiments on high-quality stressor-induced InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots. The optical spectra of these dot structures exhibit large quantization effects together with remarkably low inhomogeneous broadenings of the respective excitonic transitions. Thus a detailed investigation of the relaxation and recombination dynamics within the distinct electronic dot states becomes feasible. We find that the initial relaxation of optically generated carriers down to the lowest dot states is very efficient. This fast thermalization is ascribed to Coulomb scattering between carriers confined in dot states and carriers located in the higher-energetic quantum well states.