Thermal activated carrier transfer between InAs quantum dots in very low density samples

In this work we develop a detailed experimental study of the exciton recombination dynamics as a function of temperature on QD-ensembles and single QDs in two low density samples having 16.5 and 25 dots/μm2. We corroborate at the single QD level the limitation of the exciton recombination time in the smallest QDs of the distribution by thermionic emission (electron emission in transient conditions). A portion of these emitted carriers is retrapped again in other (larger) QDs, but not very distant from those emitting the carriers, because the process is limited by the diffusion length at the considered temperature.