Photon-Statistics Excitation Spectroscopy of a Quantum-Dot Micropillar Laser

We introduce photon-statistics excitation spectroscopy and exemplarily apply it to a quantum-dot micropillar laser. Both the intensity and the photon number statistics of the emission from the micropillar show a strong dependence on the photon statistics of the light used for excitation of the sample. The results under coherent and pseudothermal excitation reveal that a description of the laser properties in terms of mean input photon numbers is not sufficient. It is demonstrated that the micropillar acts as a superthermal light source when operated close to its threshold. Possible applications for important spectroscopic techniques are discussed.