Operational boundaries, threshold conditions, and self-quenching in single-emitter microcavity lasers
Abstract
We theoretically examine the emission dynamics of a three-level cascade single-emitter microcavity laser using the open-system Lindblad master equation. In our numerical simulations, we expand the Hilbert space dimensions to obtain converged observables free from truncation artifacts. We notice that the intracavity field builds up continuously to a peak value of ⟨ np ⟩max, bypassing the sharp thermodynamic thresholds of conventional ensemble lasers. By tracking individual radiative rates and for the selected set of parameters, we isolate a physical threshold at a normalized pump rate of Γ/γ12 ≈ 2.45, where net stimulated emission overcomes spontaneous noise. Crucially, comparing these numerical master equation solutions against factorized semiclassical models reveals that mean-field approximations omit a vital light-matter correlation drag force, leading to a substantial overestimation of the peak field intensity by more than 10\%. We notice that the transient Wigner function undergoes complete phase diffusion into a radially symmetric ring due to the absence of a phase-locking ensemble. Furthermore, steady-state noise calculations confirm that discrete incoherent pumping fluctuations restrict the field to strictly super-Poissonian statistics (with the Mandel parameter Q > 0 and the second-order coherence function with zero delay g(2)(0) > 1), establishing the classical shot-noise limit as a strict lower bound. At high pumping rates, population trapping in the upper level creates an excitation bottleneck that suppresses the cavity field and causes self-quenching. Our results provide an essential baseline for optimizing solid-state quantum dot and color-center nanophotonic architectures for lasing as well as for the generation of non-classical states of light.
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BibTeX
@misc{gospodinov2026operational,
title = {{Operational boundaries, threshold conditions, and self-quenching in single-emitter microcavity lasers}},
author = {Alexandra Gospodinov and Celia Powers and Imran M. Mirza},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.31239},
eprint = {2606.31239},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.31239},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Operational boundaries, threshold conditions, and self-quenching in single-emitter microcavity lasers
AU - Alexandra Gospodinov
AU - Celia Powers
AU - Imran M. Mirza
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.31239
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.31239
AB - We theoretically examine the emission dynamics of a three-level cascade single-emitter microcavity laser using the open-system Lindblad master equation. In our numerical simulations, we expand the Hilbert space dimensions to obtain converged observables free from truncation artifacts. We notice that the intracavity field builds up continuously to a peak value of ⟨ n_p ⟩_max, bypassing the sharp thermodynamic thresholds of conventional ensemble lasers. By tracking individual radiative rates and for the selected set of parameters, we isolate a physical threshold at a normalized pump rate of Γ/γ_12 ≈ 2.45, where net stimulated emission overcomes spontaneous noise. Crucially, comparing these numerical master equation solutions against factorized semiclassical models reveals that mean-field approximations omit a vital light-matter correlation drag force, leading to a substantial overestimation of the peak field intensity by more than 10\%. We notice that the transient Wigner function undergoes complete phase diffusion into a radially symmetric ring due to the absence of a phase-locking ensemble. Furthermore, steady-state noise calculations confirm that discrete incoherent pumping fluctuations restrict the field to strictly super-Poissonian statistics (with the Mandel parameter Q > 0 and the second-order coherence function with zero delay g^(2)(0) > 1), establishing the classical shot-noise limit as a strict lower bound. At high pumping rates, population trapping in the upper level creates an excitation bottleneck that suppresses the cavity field and causes self-quenching. Our results provide an essential baseline for optimizing solid-state quantum dot and color-center nanophotonic architectures for lasing as well as for the generation of non-classical states of light.
ER -