Lasing thresholds and photon statistics in high-β buried multiple quantum well photonic crystal nanocavity lasers

We investigate the lasing thresholds and photon statistics of buried multiple quantum well (MQW) photonic crystal (PhC) lasers with a high spontaneous emission coupling coefficient beta and a large carrier transparency number N-0. Using measured input-output curves and delay-dependent second-order photon correlations g((2)) (tau), we estimate that our population inversion threshold is near the kink threshold of the input-output curve, which indicates that the buried MQW PhC lasers operate close to the lasers without inversion (intensity jump without inversion) regime proposed by Yamamoto and Bjork. With respect to static photon statistics g((2)) (0), the super-Poissonian photon statistics g((2)) (0) > 1 are observed even one order of magnitude above the kink threshold. The super-Poissonian photon statistics are specific to the class-B lasers where the photon decay rate gamma(c) is much larger than that of carriers gamma(parallel to) and the relaxation oscillation occurs. We also propose that the pump power needed to maximize the damping time of the relaxation oscillation could be the noise threshold at which the photon statistics change from thermal to Poissonian.