Emission intensity dependence and single-exponential behavior in single colloidal quantum dot fluorescence lifetimes

We present measurements of photoluminescence decay dynamics from single colloidal CdSe quantum dots. We find that the decays fluctuate in time with decay rates that correlate with time-averaged emission intensities. Moreover, the decays measured by selecting only those photons collected while the single quantum dot emission intensity was near its maximum yields single-exponential dynamics. We find that the "maximum-intensity" decays are nearly identical across different independently synthesized samples of nearly the same size. The combination of single-exponential kinetics and decays that are reproducible across samples leads us to speculate that it is the radiative lifetime that is measured and that the quantum yield of a single dot near its maximum emission intensity is close to unity. The variations in decay rates with time and their correlation with emission intensity indicate these intensity time trajectories primarily reflect fluctuations in nonradiative relaxation pathways.