  We present experimental and theoretical investigation of exciton
recombination dynamics and the related polarization of emission in highly
in-plane asymmetric nanostructures. Considering general asymmetry- and
size-driven effects, we illustrate them with a detailed analysis of
InAs/AlGaInAs/InP elongated quantum dots. These offer a widely varied
confinement characteristics tuned by size and geometry that are tailored during
the growth process, which leads to emission in the application-relevant
spectral range of 1.25-1.65 {\mu}m. By exploring the interplay of the very
shallow hole confining potential and widely varying structural asymmetry, we
show that a transition from the strong through intermediate to even weak
confinement regime is possible in nanostructures of this kind. This has a
significant impact on exciton recombination dynamics and the polarization of
emission, which are shown to depend not only on details of the calculated
excitonic states but also on excitation conditions in the photoluminescence
experiments. We estimate the impact of the latter and propose a way to
determine the intrinsic polarization-dependent exciton light-matter coupling
based on kinetic characteristics.
