Fast Electron and Slow Hole Relaxation in InP-Based Colloidal Quantum Dots

Colloidal InP-based quantum dots are a promising material for light-emitting applications as an environment friendly alternative to their Cd-containing counterparts. Especially for their use in optoelectronic devices, it is essential to understand how charge carriers relax to the emitting state after injection with excess energy and if all of them arrive at this desired state. Herein, we report on time-resolved differential transmission measurements on colloidal InP/ZnS and InP/ZnSe core/shell quantum dots. By optically exciting and probing individual transitions, we are able to distinguish between electron and hole relaxation. This in turn allows us to determine how the initial excess energy of the charge carriers affects the relaxation processes. According to the electronic level scheme, one expects a strong phonon bottleneck for electrons, while holes should relax easier as their energy levels are more closely spaced. On the contrary, we find that electrons relax faster than holes. The fast electron re...