Defect-assisted relaxation in quantum dots at low temperature

A model for electron relaxation in a quantum dot, including a nonradiative pathway through a point defect, is presented, using time-dependent perturbation theory. The results obtained here extend previous work [Phys. Rev. B 51, 14 532 (1995)] to the experimentally relevant low-temperature regime. It is found that relaxation through defects may circumvent the phonon bottleneck predicted for ideal nanometer-scale quantum dot structures even at low temperatures. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.