Effects of erbium doping on photocarrier lifetime have been investigated for self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in strain-relaxed In(0.35)Ga(0.65)As barriers grown on (1 0 0) GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Time-resolved transmission change measurements were performed on 20-layer stacks of the Er-doped InAs QDs at room temperature using 0.1 ps laser pulses with the center wavelength of 1.5 mu m. Fast and slow decay components were observed in the temporal profile of each Er-doped InAs QD sample. The slow decay component attributed to the radiative recombination process in the QDs was well suppressed by increasing Er-doping density. Moreover, the decay time of the fast component due to the nonradiative process was markedly reduced by the incorporation of Er dopants during the QD formation. A decay time of 3.5 ps was obtained for the Er-doped InAs QD sample with a sheet density of incorporated Er dopants per QD layer of 2.7 x 10(13) cm(-2). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.