  Strong coupling of photons and materials in semiconductor nanocavity systems
has been investigated because of its potentials in quantum information
processing and related applications, and has been testbeds for cavity quantum
electrodynamics (QED). Interesting phenomena such as coherent exchange of a
single quantum between a single quantum dot and an optical cavity, called
vacuum Rabi oscillation, and highly efficient cavity QED lasers have been
reported thus far. The coexistence of vacuum Rabi oscillation and laser
oscillation appears to be contradictory in nature, because the fragile
reversible process may not survive in laser oscillation. However, recently, it
has been theoretically predicted that the strong-coupling effect could be
sustained in laser oscillation in properly designed semiconductor systems.
Nevertheless, the experimental realization of this phenomenon has remained
difficult since the first demonstration of the strong-coupling, because an
extremely high cavity quality factor and strong light-matter coupling are both
required for this purpose. Here, we demonstrate the onset of laser oscillation
in the strong-coupling regime in a single quantum dot (SQD)-cavity system. A
high-quality semiconductor optical nanocavity and strong SQD-field coupling
enabled to the onset of lasing while maintaining the fragile coherent exchange
of quanta between the SQD and the cavity. In addition to the interesting
physical features, this device is seen as a prototype of an ultimate solid
state light source with an SQD gain, which operates at ultra-low power, with
expected applications in future nanophotonic integrated systems and monolithic
quantum information devices.
