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Science

Higher-Order Photon Bunching in a Semiconductor Microcavity

Marc Aßmann, Franziska Veit, M. Bayer, M. van der Poel, J. M. Hvam

Published Jul 16, 2009• 115 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum mechanically indistinguishable particles such as photons may show collective behavior. Therefore, an appropriate description of a light field must consider the properties of an assembly of photons instead of independent particles. We have studied multiphoton correlations up to fourth order in the single-mode emission of a semiconductor microcavity in the weak and strong coupling regimes. The counting statistics of single photons were recorded with picosecond time resolution, allowing quantitative measurement of the few-photon bunching inside light pulses. Our results show bunching behavior in the strong coupling case, which vanishes in the weak coupling regime as the cavity starts lasing. In particular, we verify the n factorial prediction for the zero-delay correlation function of n thermal light photons.

DOI
10.1126/science.1174488

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Quantum mechanically indistinguishable particles such as photons may show collective behavior. Therefore, an appropriate description of a light field must consider the properties of an assembly of photons instead of independent particles. We have studied multiphoton correlations up to fourth order in the single-mode emission of a semiconductor microcavity in the weak and strong coupling regimes. The counting statistics of single photons were recorded with picosecond time resolution, allowing quantitative measurement of the few-photon bunching inside light pulses. Our results show bunching behavior in the strong coupling case, which vanishes in the weak coupling regime as the cavity starts lasing. In particular, we verify the n factorial prediction for the zero-delay correlation function of n thermal light photons.
Abstract A quantum behavior of the light emitted by exciton polaritons excited in a pillar semiconductor microcavity with embedded quantum well is investigated. Considering the bare excitons and photon modes as coupled quantum oscillators allows for an accurate accounting of the nonlinear and dissipative effects. In particular, using the method of quantum states presentation in a quantum phase space via quasiprobability functions (namely, a P-function and a Wigner function), we study the effect of the laser and the exciton-photon detuning on the second order correlation function of the emitted photons. We determine the conditions for the phenomena of bunching, giant bunching, and antibunching of the emitted light. In particular, we predict the effect of a giant bunching for the case of a large exciton to photon population ratio. Within the domain of parameters supporting a bistability regime we demonstrate the effect of bunching of photons.
We present a microscopic description of the photon statistics and phonon signatures in the quantum light emission from semiconductor quantum dots. Using higher-order Born approximation, time-resolved optical emission and scattering spectra are calculated in the weak coupling regime. In the strong coupling regime, a mathematical induction method is presented to calculate the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon-assisted quantum dot cavity-QED. The phonon interaction at room temperature has a strong impact on the quantum correlation of the cavity field and enhances the non-classicality of the cavity field, initially prepared in a thermal state.
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There exists a growing interest in the properties of the light generated by hybrid systems involving a mesoscopic number of emitters as a means of providing macroscopic quantum light sources. In this work, the quantum correlations of the light emitted by a collection of emitters coupled to a generic optical cavity are studied theoretically using an effective Hamiltonian approach. Starting from the single-emitter level, we analyze the persistence of photon antibunching as the ensemble size increases. Not only is the photon blockade effect identifiable, but photon antibunching originated from destructive interference processes, the so-called unconventional antibunching, is also present. We study the dependence of these two types of negative correlations on the spectral detuning between cavity and emitters, as well as its evolution as the time delay between photon detections increases. Throughout this work, the performance of plasmonic nanocavities and dielectric microcavities is compared: despite the distinct energy scales and the differences introduced by their respectively open and closed character, the bunching and antibunching phenomenology presents remarkable similarities in both types of cavities.
Strong correlations in the fluctuations of the intensity of emission from a semiconductor microcavity under resonant laser excitation are observed. The intensity correlation function exhibits an unusual oscillatory behavior with an unexpectedly long oscillation period and decay time. The visibility of the correlation function reaches 0.81. Long oscillation times are attributed to the Rabi frequency characterizing weak coupling between the electromagnetic field of the semiconductor microcavity mode and long-lived exciton states localized by the random potential of the quantum well. For a laser excitation power density of 400 W/cm 2 , the power density of the radiation emitted by the microcavity is 12 W/cm 2 , which corresponds to the total flux of nonclassical light of 1.5 × 10 15 photons/s from an excited spot 50 μm in diameter. Thus, a microcavity can serve as a bright emitter of nonclassical light.