Explanation of photon correlations in the far-off-resonance optical emission from a quantum-dot-cavity system

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Nov 13;103(20):207403. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.207403. Epub 2009 Nov 12.

Abstract

In a coupled quantum-dot-nanocavity system, the photoluminescence from an off-resonance cavity mode exhibits strong quantum correlations with the quantum-dot transitions, even though its autocorrelation function is classical. Using new pump-power dependent photon-correlation measurements, we demonstrate that this seemingly contradictory observation that has so far defied an explanation stems from cascaded cavity photon emission in transitions between excited multiexciton states. The mesoscopic nature of quantum-dot confinement ensures the presence of a quasicontinuum of excitonic transitions, part of which overlaps with the cavity resonance.