Injection locking of quantum dot microlasers operating in the few photon regime

Abstract

We experimentally and theoretically investigate injection locking of quantum dot (QD) microlasers in the regime of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED). We observe frequency locking and phase-locking where cavity enhanced spontaneous emission enables simultaneous stable oscillation at the master frequency and at the solitary frequency of the slave microlaser. Measurements of the second-order autocorrelation function prove this simultaneous presence of both master and slave-like emission, where the former has coherent character with $g^{(2)}(0)=1$ while the latter one has thermal character with $g^{(2)}(0)=2$. Semi-classical rate-equations explain this peculiar behavior by cavity enhanced spontaneous emission and a low number of photons in the laser mode.