Quantum Theory of Nonlinear Semiconductor Microcavity Luminescence Explaining “Boser” Experiments

Photoluminescence experiments from semiconductor quantum wells inside a microcavity are reported which exhibit a thresholdlike transition already below lasing. A fully quantum mechanical theory for an interacting system of photons and Coulomb-correlated quantum well electrons and holes inside a microcavity is presented. The experimental results previously attributed to bosonic condensation are explained consistently in terms of fermionic electron-hole correlations.