Abstract

High-efficiency and low-threshold semiconductor lasers can be achieved through the control of the spontaneous emission in semiconductor microcavities.^1–5 New QED effects, such as lasing without inversion and squeezing at and below threshold, are predicted in semiconductor microcavities whose spontaneous-emission factor is close to unity.⁶ In this paper we describe the lasing operation of InGaAs single-quantum- well hemispherical-microcavity lasers at 4 K with a measured spontaneous-emission coupling factor of β ~ 0,05.

© 1993 Optical Society of America