Measurement of the ultrafast gain recovery in InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots: Beyond a mean-field description

We measured the ultrafast gain recovery dynamics of the ground-state transition in an ensemble of electrically pumped InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots having a nonequilibrium carrier distribution prepared by an optical prepump pulse. We find that the gain recovery dynamics after optical depletion by the prepump is faster than without prepump, an effect most pronounced at low temperature 15 K but observable up to room temperature. This finding is not consistent with a mean-field description of the carrier distribution and gives direct evidence that microstates with discrete carrier numbers determine the macroscopic response. The observed dynamics results from a conditional recovery where microstates with an internal relaxation slower than the depletion lead time are selectively suppressed.