Photon properties of light in semiconductor microcavities

Properties of atom-like emitters in cavities are successfully described by cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity-QED). In this work, we focus on the issue of the steady-state and spectral properties of the light emitted by a driven microcavity containing a quantum well (QW) with the excitonic interactions using simulation of fully quantum-mechanical treatment. The system is coherently pumped with laser, and it is found that depending on the relative values of pumping rate of stimulated emission, either one or two peaks close to the excitation energy of the QW or to the natural frequency of the cavity are shown in the emission spectrum. Furthermore, the nonclassical proprieties of the emitted photon have been investigated. This excitonic system presents several dynamical and statistical similarities to the atomic system, in particular for the bad-cavity and good-cavity limits. The results show that the photon emission can be significantly amplified due to the coupling strength between a single emitter and radiation field in the microcavity, and it is concluded that the present semiconductor microcavity system may serve as a QW laser with low threshold. © 2009 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH.