Emission properties and temporal coherence of the dark exciton confined in a GaAs / Al x Ga 1 − x As quantum dot

We report measurements of the radiative lifetimes and coherence times of the dark and bright excitons in an asymmetric GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot. The dots, fabricated by partial infilling of asymmetric in situ etched nanoholes, have low symmetry, which leads to significant dark-bright mixing as demonstrated by dark-bright anticrossing in magnetophotoluminescence spectra. Using an orthogonal excitation-detection waveguiding geometry and quasiresonant excitation, we compare the coherence properties, measured by Michelson interferometry, of the dark and bright exciton from the same dot in the absence of an external magnetic field.