Evidence of interdot electronic tunneling in vertically coupled In0.4Ga0.6As self-organized quantum dots

Ultrafast differential transmission spectroscopy with a resonant pump reveals evidence of electronic tunneling among the excited levels of vertically aligned ${\mathrm{In}}_{\mathrm{0.4}}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{\mathrm{0.6}}\mathrm{As}$ self-organized quantum dots. This evidence of tunneling is observed as a rapid spectral redistribution of electrons within a few hundred femtoseconds of optical excitation. Measurements show that this spectral spread is independent of carrier density and, therefore, indicate that carrier–carrier scattering is not the main mechanism for carrier redistribution. Instead, electronic tunneling is responsible for the interdot coupling; tunneling rate calculations agree reasonably with the experiment, supporting this conclusion.