  We probe acoustic phonon mediated relaxation between tunnel coupled exciton
states in an individual quantum dot molecule in which the inter-dot quantum
coupling and energy separation between exciton states is continuously tuned
using static electric field. Time resolved and temperature dependent optical
spectroscopy are used to probe inter-level relaxation around the point of
maximum coupling. The radiative lifetimes of the coupled excitonic states can
be tuned from ~2 ns to ~10 ns as the spatially direct and indirect character of
the wavefunction is varied by detuning from resonance. Acoustic phonon mediated
inter-level relaxation is shown to proceed over timescales comparable to the
direct exciton radiative lifetime, indicative of a relaxation bottleneck for
level spacings in the range $\Delta E\$ ~3-6 meV.
