skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Emission from quantum-dot high-β microcavities: transition from spontaneous emission to lasing and the effects of superradiant emitter coupling

Journal Article · · Light, Science & Applications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/lsa.2017.30· OSTI ID:1398781
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [1]
  1. Technische Univ. Berlin (Germany). Inst. fur Festkorperphysik
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. Univ. of Wurzburg (Germany). Lehrstuhl fur Technische Physik
  4. Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy
  5. Univ. of Wurzburg (Germany). Lehrstuhl fur Technische Physik; Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy

Measured and calculated results are presented for the emission properties of a new class of emitters operating in the cavity quantum electrodynamics regime. The structures are based on high-finesse GaAs/AlAs micropillar cavities, each with an active medium consisting of a layer of InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) and the distinguishing feature of having a substantial fraction of spontaneous emission channeled into one cavity mode (high β-factor). This paper demonstrates that the usual criterion for lasing with a conventional (low β-factor) cavity, that is, a sharp non-linearity in the input–output curve accompanied by noticeable linewidth narrowing, has to be reinforced by the equal-time second-order photon autocorrelation function to confirm lasing. The article also shows that the equal-time second-order photon autocorrelation function is useful for recognizing superradiance, a manifestation of the correlations possible in high-β microcavities operating with QDs. In terms of consolidating the collected data and identifying the physics underlying laser action, both theory and experiment suggest a sole dependence on intracavity photon number. Evidence for this assertion comes from all our measured and calculated data on emission coherence and fluctuation, for devices ranging from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and cavity-enhanced LEDs to lasers, lying on the same two curves: one for linewidth narrowing versus intracavity photon number and the other for g(2)(0) versus intracavity photon number.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); European Union (EU); German Research Foundation (DFG)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000; 615613
OSTI ID:
1398781
Report Number(s):
SAND-2017-9890J; lsa201730
Journal Information:
Light, Science & Applications, Vol. 6, Issue 8; ISSN 2047-7538
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 71 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (60)

Emission properties of nanolasers during the transition to lasing journal August 2014
Sub- and Superradiance in Nanolasers journal October 2015
Superradiance and Subradiance in an Inhomogeneously Broadened Ensemble of Two-Level Systems Coupled to a Low- Q Cavity journal December 2005
Giant photon bunching, superradiant pulse emission and excitation trapping in quantum-dot nanolasers journal May 2016
Near thresholdless laser operation at room temperature journal January 2015
Optical microcavities journal August 2003
Resonance Absorption by Nuclear Magnetic Moments in a Solid journal January 1946
Carrier relaxation dynamics in self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots journal December 2009
All-Color Plasmonic Nanolasers with Ultralow Thresholds: Autotuning Mechanism for Single-Mode Lasing journal July 2014
Definition of a laser threshold journal August 1994
Rate equation analysis of microcavity lasers journal November 1989
Single quantum-dot Purcell factor and β factor in a photonic crystal waveguide journal May 2007
Observation of Dicke superradiance for two artificial atoms in a cavity with high decay rate journal November 2014
Sub-microWatt threshold nanoisland lasers journal September 2015
Anomalous Spontaneous Emission Time in a Microscopic Optical Cavity journal December 1987
Intensity Fluctuations in a GaAs Laser journal January 1965
Physics and Device Applications of Optical Microcavities journal April 1992
Strong coupling in a single quantum dot–semiconductor microcavity system journal November 2004
Bloch-Wave Engineering of Quantum Dot Micropillars for Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics Experiments journal January 2012
Impact of Coulomb Scattering on the Ultrafast Gain Recovery in InGaAs Quantum Dots journal December 2008
Monolayer excitonic laser journal October 2015
Evolution of the onset of coherence in a family of photonic crystal nanolasers journal July 2007
The Laser Diode: 50 Years On journal July 2013
Analysis of semiconductor microcavity lasers using rate equations journal January 1991
Optically Pumped Two-Dimensional MoS 2 Lasers Operating at Room-Temperature journal July 2015
Controlling the dynamics of spontaneous emission from quantum dots by photonic crystals journal August 2004
Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation: Quantum Generation of Coherent Surface Plasmons in Nanosystems journal January 2003
Coherence in Spontaneous Radiation Processes journal January 1954
Analogy between the Laser Threshold Region and a Second-Order Phase Transition journal October 1970
Microstructured semiconductor lasers for high-speed information processing journal October 1994
Higher-order photon correlations in pulsed photonic crystal nanolasers journal December 2011
Superradiance of quantum dots journal January 2007
Infrared and Optical Masers journal December 1958
Giant superfluorescent bursts from a semiconductor magneto-plasma journal January 2012
Self-Tuned Quantum Dot Gain in Photonic Crystal Lasers journal March 2006
Direct observation of correlations between individual photon emission events of a microcavity laser journal July 2009
Anomaly in the excitation dependence of the optical gain of semiconductor quantum dots journal July 2006
On the physics of semiconductor quantum dots for applications in lasers and quantum optics journal May 2013
Extrapolation of the intensity autocorrelation function of a quantum-dot micropillar laser into the thermal emission regime journal January 2011
Interfacing single photons and single quantum dots with photonic nanostructures journal May 2015
Thresholdless nanoscale coaxial lasers journal February 2012
Analysis of lasers as a solution to efficiency droop in solid-state lighting journal October 2015
Semiconductor Microlaser Linewidths journal September 1994
Photon Statistics of Semiconductor Microcavity Lasers journal January 2007
Systematic study of thresholdless oscillation in high-β buried multiple-quantum-well photonic crystal nanocavity lasers journal January 2016
Monolayer semiconductor nanocavity lasers with ultralow thresholds journal March 2015
APPLIED PHYSICS: Seeking the Ultimate Nanolaser journal October 2006
What is a Diode Laser Oscillator? journal July 2013
What is Laser Threshold? journal July 2013
Intensity Fluctuations in a GaAs Laser. journal February 1965
Anomalous Spontaneous Emission Time in a Microscopic Optical Cavity journal April 1988
Optical microcavities conference January 2005
Physics and Device Applications of Optical Microcavities book January 1995
Strong coupling in a single quantum dot semiconductor microcavity system conference February 2006
Bloch-wave engineering of quantum dot-micropillars for cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments text January 2011
Thresholdless Nanoscale Coaxial Lasers text January 2011
Photon-number correlations near the threshold of microcavity lasers in the weak-coupling regime journal May 1994
Photon statistics of a cavity-QED laser: A comment on the laser–phase-transition analogy journal November 1994
Dephasing of Exciton Polaritons in Photoexcited InGaAs Quantum Dots in GaAs Nanocavities journal August 2009
Anomalous spontaneous stimulated-decay phase transition and zero-threshold laser action in a microscopic cavity journal April 1988

Cited By (24)

2D Material Microcavity Light Emitters: To Lase or Not to Lase? journal July 2018
Entanglement Purification of Nonlocal Quantum-Dot-Confined Electrons Assisted by Double-Sided Optical Microcavities journal April 2018
Quantum-optical spectroscopy of a two-level system using an electrically driven micropillar laser as a resonant excitation source journal July 2018
Determining random lasing action journal October 2019
Facile synthesized ZnO microcrystals for random microlasers and incandescent-type light sources journal January 2019
Rate equation description of quantum noise in nanolasers with few emitters journal April 2018
Quantum-optical influences in optoelectronics—An introduction journal December 2018
Quantum dot micropillar lasers journal June 2019
Lasing thresholds and photon statistics in high- β buried multiple quantum well photonic crystal nanocavity lasers journal May 2019
Delayed Transition to Coherent Emission in Nanolasers with Extended Gain Media journal November 2018
Exploring the Photon-Number Distribution of Bimodal Microlasers with a Transition Edge Sensor journal June 2018
Manipulating spontaneous emission spectra using two-dimensional elliptical microcavities journal January 2019
Tailoring the mode-switching dynamics in quantum-dot micropillar lasers via time-delayed optical feedback journal January 2018
Fluorescent incandescent light sources from individual quadrilateral ZnO microwire via Ga-incorporation journal January 2019
Microcrystal modulated exciton-polariton emissions from single ZnO@ZnO:Ga microwire journal January 2020
Quantum-optical spectroscopy of a two-level system using an electrically driven micropillar laser as a resonant excitation source text January 2018
Quantum-Optical Spectroscopy of a Two-Level System Using an Electrically Driven Micropillar Laser as Resonant Excitation Source conference July 2018
Entanglement purification of nonlocal quantum-dot-confined electrons assisted by double-sided optical microcavities text January 2018
Delayed transition to coherent emission in nanolasers with extended gain media text January 2018
Unveiling the physics of microcavity lasers journal August 2017
A quantum optical study of thresholdless lasing features in high-β nitride nanobeam cavities journal February 2018
Quantum-dot micropillar lasers subject to coherent time-delayed optical feedback from a short external cavity journal January 2019
Quantum-optical spectroscopy of a two-level system using an electrically driven micropillar laser as resonant excitation source text January 2017
Thresholdless transition to coherent emission at telecom wavelengths from coaxial nanolasers text January 2019