Distinguishing photon and polariton lasing from GaAs microcavities by spectral and temporal analysis of the two-threshold behavior

Abstract: We compare polariton lasing with photon lasing of a planar GaAs/GaAlAs microcavity with zero detuning between the bare cavity mode and the bare exciton mode. For the emission from the lower energy-momentum dispersion branch we find a two-threshold behavior of the ground state in the input-output curve where each transition is accompanied by characteristic changes of the in-plane mode dispersion. In particular, we show that the thresholds are unambiguously evidenced in the photon statistics of the emission based on the second-order correlation function. Moreover, the distinct two-threshold behavior is confirmed in the evolution of the emission pulse duration.