Optical Blocking of Electron Tunneling into a Single Self-Assembled Quantum Dot

Time-resolved resonance fluorescence (RF) is used to analyze electron tunneling between a single self-assembled quantum dot (QD) and an electron reservoir. In equilibrium, the RF intensity reflects the average electron occupation of the QD and exhibits a gate voltage dependence that is given by the Fermi distribution in the reservoir. In the time-resolved signal, however, we find that the relaxation rate for electron tunneling is, surprisingly, independent of the occupation in the charge reservoir-in contrast to results from all-electrical transport measurements. Using a master equation approach, which includes both the electron tunneling and the optical excitation or recombination, we are able to explain the experimental data by optical blocking, which also reduces the electron tunneling rate when the QD is occupied by an exciton.