Comparison of the coherence properties of superradiance and laser emission in semiconductor structures

The coherence properties of a transient electron – hole state developing during superradiance emission in semiconductor laser structures have been studied experimentally using a Michelson interferometer and Young's classic double-slit configuration. The results demonstrate that, in the lasers studied, the first-order correlation function, which quantifies spatial coherence, approaches unity for superradiant emission and is 0.2 – 0.5 for laser emission. The supercoherence is due to long-range ordering upon the superradiant phase transition.