Abstract
We study theoretically phonon-assisted relaxation processes in a system consisting of one or two electrons confined in two vertically stacked self-assembled quantum dots. The calculation is based on a approximation for single-particle wave functions in a strained self-assembled structure. From these, two-particle states are calculated by including the Coulomb interaction and the transition rates between the lowest-energy eigenstates are derived. We take into account phonon couplings via deformation potential and piezoelectric interaction and show that they both can play a dominant role in different parameter regimes. Within the Fermi golden rule approximation, we calculate the relaxation rates between the lowest-energy eigenstates which lead to thermalization on a picosecond time scale in a narrow range of dot sizes.
3 More- Received 19 March 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.245312
©2010 American Physical Society