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Phys. Rev. A 53, 4250 - 4253 (1996)

Nonequilibrium condensates and lasers without inversion: Exciton-polariton lasers

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A. Imamog¯lu and R. J. Ram
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106

S. Pau and Y. Yamamoto
ERATO Quantum Fluctuation Project, E. L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305

Received 19 December 1995

We analyze elementary properties of exciton and polariton lasers — devices that generate coherent optical and matter waves using final-state stimulation of exciton-phonon scattering. First we discuss the relation between the conditions for the onset of equilibrium and nonequilibrium excitonic condensates. Provided that the thermal de Broglie wavelength λT exceeds the exciton Bohr radius aB, an exciton laser operates without electronic population inversion. In contrast to previous proposals, this is a different type of laser without inversion which utilizes many-body coherences. When the excitonic character of the polariton branch vanishes, a polariton laser becomes indistinguishable from a photon laser. © 1996 The American Physical Society.


©1996 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.53.4250
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.53.4250
PACS: 03.75.Fi, 42.50.Lc, 03.65.Bz, 71.35.-y

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