The influence of carrier diffusion on the formation of charged excitons in InAs/GaAs quantum dots

It is demonstrated that the photoluminescence spectra of single self-assembled quantum dots are very sensitive to the excitation energy and crystal temperature. A qualitative explanation is given in terms of the effective diffusivity of the photogenerated carriers, determined by the experimental conditions, which influence the capture probability and hence also the charge state of the quantum dots (QDs). This is proposed as an effective tool to populate quantum dots with extra electrons in order to study phenomena involving charged excitons.