Huang–Rhys side-bands in the emission line of a single InAs quantum dot

We report the first direct observation of Huang–Rhys side-bands in the photoluminescence spectrum of a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD). At low temperature View the MathML source the single QD spectrum has a quasi-Lorentzian profile. At higher temperatures, we observe a strong deviation from a Lorentzian profile with the appearance of asymmetric side-bands which become symmetric above View the MathML source. We obtain an excellent agreement with theoretical calculations done in the framework of the Huang–Rhys formalism. We conclude that the zero-phonon linewidth is the relevant parameter for the observation of the low-energy acoustic phonon side-bands.