The pivotal role played by semiconductor lasers in telecommunications and data storage applications requires dealing with time lag and relaxation oscillations, which limit bandwidth and reliability. As an alternative to the mitigation measures traditionally employed, we analyze the potential of size downscaling and investigate the intrinsic physical features of lasers down to the nanoscale. An analysis of the dynamical properties as a function of scale, with standard models, highlights the intrinsic potential of nanolasers as advantageous sources of light for information. Noise response and characteristic times strongly confirm that considerable gain can be obtained from small devices, thus encouraging efforts directed at solving technological hurdles.
We consider two issues concerning the dynamics of nanolasers: the impact of their large noise on the deterministic trajectories and the interpretation of the statistical results coming from the photon statistics. The second issue, due to the lack of sufficiently sensitive and fast detectors, represents an unavoidable bottleneck in the analysis of any dynamics and is discussed in detail. Our study reveals several important results. Statistics and dynamics provide complementary information, but the former is not able to reliably distinguish different dynamical regimes. Inferring a coherence emission regime, or degree of coherence, from autocorrelation functions is fraught with interpretative traps. Finally, we address the challenge posed by external noise, which dramatically distorts the statistical information derived from the autocorrelations. We introduce an empirical indicator capable of identifying the lowest pump value from which autocorrelation values become reliable, based on a single sequence of noisy data that can be applied to the same-time, second-order autocorrelation function. This indicator is a valuable tool for experimentalists.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.