Nonlinear optical microscopy of a single self-assembled InGaAs quantum dot

Carrier dynamics in InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots is analyzed with highly sensitive two-color femtosecond transmission spectroscopy. Especially, a single artificial atom is addressed in the optical near-field of a nanometer scale shadow mask. Resonantly exciting the wetting layer beneath the nanoisland, we detect transmission changes of the quantum dot with narrowband femtojoule probe pulses. We find bleaching signals in the order of 10^-5 that arise from individual interband transitions. Moreover, the nonlinear optical response reveals a picosecond dynamics associated with carrier relaxation in the quantum dot. As a result, we have demonstrated an ultrafast optical tool for both manipulation and read-out of a single self-assembled quantum dot.