Behavior of laser diodes in the small particle number quantum limit.

We use master equations to model the steady-state and transient response of a laser diode in the small particle number quantum limit. In scaled laser diodes $n$ electrons and $s$ photons are correlated such that $<$\textit{ns}$>$ may not be factorized and there are significant differences in behavior compared to predictions of continuum mean-field theory. Quantization of photon number is found to supress lasing threshold and create a non-Poisson probability distribution for $n$ discrete electrons and $s$ discrete photons. The same correlation effect damps the transient dynamic response of laser emission. The predictions of conventional mean-field and Langevin theory are recovered in the large particle number limit.