Polarization anisotropic luminescence of tunable single lateral quantum dot molecules

We investigate the photoluminescence polarization anisotropy of self-assembled individual lateral InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot molecules. In contrast to similarly grown single quantum dots, the dot molecules exhibit a remarkable degree of linear polarization, which remains almost unchanged when a lateral electric field is applied to tune the exciton wave function and, thus, the luminescence spectral properties. We discuss the nature of this polarization anisotropy and suggest possible causes based on the system’s symmetry and heterostructure alloy composition.