Quantum noise and its suppression in semiconductor microlasers and nanolasers

Jesper Moerk

Semiconductor microlasers and nanolasers operate in a regime where most of the spontaneous emission is funneled into the lasing mode. At the same time, the absolute power level of the laser is minimal. This implies that the intrinsic quantum noise of the laser is very large and may be the dominant source of errors in systems that employ such lasers, e.g. for ultra-low power optical interconnects or microscopic optical sensors. In this paper, we elucidate the differences in quantum noise of macroscopic and microscopic lasers and discuss two qualitatively different ways of reducing the noise. One employs nanocavities with extreme confinement of light to enhance the light-matter interaction and squeeze the intensity noise, and the other uses a bound-state-in-the continuum in a Fano laser to reduce the laser linewidth.

Jesper Moerk is Professor at the Technical University of Denmark. He leads the Center for Nanophotonics - NanoPhoton, which explores the physics and applications of semiconductor nanocavities with extreme confinement of light. His research interests include laser physics, quantum noise, decoherence in semiconductors and nonlinear dynamics.