Influence of the charge carrier tunneling processes on the recombination dynamics in single lateral quantum dot molecules

We report on the charge carrier dynamics in single lateral quantum dot molecules and the effect of an applied electric field on the molecular states. Controllable electron tunneling manifests itself in a deviation from the typical excitonic decay behavior in dot molecules. It results in a faster population decay and can be strongly influenced by the tuning electric field and intermolecular Coulomb energies. A rate equation model is developed and compared to the experimental data to gain more insight into the charge transfer and tunneling mechanisms. Nonresonant (phonon-mediated) electron tunneling which changes the molecular exciton character from direct to indirect, and vice versa, is found to be the dominant tunable decay mechanism of excitons besides radiative recombination.