Emission properties and photon statistics of a single quantum dot laser.

A theoretical description for a single quantum-dot emitter in a microcavity is developed.We analyze for increasing steady-state pump rate the transition from the strong-coupling regime with photon antibunching to the weak-coupling regime with coherent emission. It is demonstrated how Coulomb interaction of excited carriers and excitation-induced dephasing can strongly modify the emission properties. Our theoretical investigations are based on a direct solution of the Liouville-von Neumann equation for the coupled carrier-photon system. We include multiple carrier excitations in the quantum dot, their Coulomb interaction, as well as excitation-induced dephasing and screening. Similarities and differences to atomic systems are discussed and results in the regime of recent experiments are interpreted. (c) 2010 Optical Society of America.