  The ground state carrier dynamics in self-assembled (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum
dots has been studied using time-resolved photoluminescence and transmission.
By varying the dot design with respect to confinement and doping, the dynamics
is shown to follow in general a non-exponential decay. Only for specific
conditions in regard to optical excitation and carrier population, for example,
the decay can be well described by a mono-exponential form. For resonant
excitation of the ground state transition a strong shortening of the
luminescence decay time is observed as compared to the non-resonant case. The
results are consistent with a microscopic theory that accounts for deviations
from a simple two-level picture.
