Nonlinear Emission of Semiconductor Microcavities in the Strong Coupling Regime

Houdré, R.; Weisbuch, C.; Stanley, R. P.; Oesterle, U.; Ilegems, M.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.2793

Cited by 117 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The coherence of these beams was demonstrated by significant spectral narrowing, proving that they are due to a parametric process rather than resonantly enhanced incoherent photoluminescence. Houdré et al 6 , have also observed a nonlinear emission at 0 • for a structure pumped at 10 • . However, in this experiment the pair scattering resonance condition is not satisfied, suggesting that different physics may be involved.…”

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confidence: 91%

Classical treatment of parametric processes in a strong-coupling planar microcavity

2001

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I present a theoretical treatment of parametric scattering in strong coupling semiconductor microcavities to model experiments in which parametric oscillator behaviour has been observed. The model consists of a non-linear excitonic oscillator coupled to a cavity mode which is driven by the external fields, and predicts the output power, below threshold gain and spectral blue shifts of the parametric oscillator. The predictions are found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental data Recent experimental studies have demonstrated that very large optical non-linearities can be obtained in resonantly pumped strong-coupling microcavities. The excitations of these structures are polaritons, mixed modes which are part exciton, part cavity photon, and the nonlinearity is due to interactions between the exciton components, which cause the polaritons to scatter off each other. This leads to a parametric process where a pair of pump polaritons scatter into non-degenerate signal and idler modes, while conserving energy and momentum. The scattering is particularly strong in microcavities because the unusual shape of the dispersion, shown in the inset to Fig.1, makes it possible for pump, signal and idler all to be on resonance at the same time.A further important property of planar microcavities is the correspondence between the in-plane momentum of each polariton mode and the direction of the external photon to which it couples. This makes it quite straight forward to investigate parametric scattering using measurements at different angles to access the various modes. Two types of process have been studied in this way: parametric amplification, where the scattering is stimulated by excitation of the signal mode with a weak probe field, and parametric oscillation, where there is no probe and a coherent population in the signal mode appears spontaneously.Parametric amplification in microcavities was first observed by Savvidis et al 1 , using ultrafast pump-probe measurements. The structure was pumped on the lower polariton branch at an incident angle of 16.5 • . Narrow band gains of up to 70 were observed in the region of the polariton feature for a probe at 0 • , along with idler emission at 35 • . These are a set of angles for which the pair scattering resonance condition is satisfied. A related scattering process has been studied by Huang et al 3 using two pump beams at ±45 • and a probe at normal incidence. The experimental results of Ref. 1 have been modelled by Ciuti et al 2 using a microscopic quantum treatment of polariton-polariton interactions.Parametric oscillator behaviour has been observed Stevenson et al 4 and Baumberg et al 5 , in CW experiments with the pump incident on the lower polariton branch at the 'magic' angle of about 16 • . Above a threshold pump intensity, strong signal and idler beams were observed at about 0 • and 35 • , without any probe stimulation. The coherence of these beams was demonstrated by significant spectral narrowing, proving that they are due to a parametric process rather th...

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confidence: 91%

Classical treatment of parametric processes in a strong-coupling planar microcavity

2001

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“…3.3, we explain the necessity for carrying out a numerical analysis of the OPO. Much experimental work has been carried out on polaritons in the OPO regime [18,36,19,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45] (for a review on the experiments, see Ref. [46]).…”

Section: Optical Parametric Oscillator Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

Vortices in Polariton OPO Superfluids

Marchetti

Szymańska

2012

Exciton Polaritons in Microcavities

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This chapter reviews the occurrence of quantised vortices in polariton fluids, primarily when polaritons are driven in the optical parametric oscillator (OPO) regime. We first review the OPO physics, together with both its analytical and numerical modelling, the latter being necessary for the description of finite size systems. Pattern formation is typical in systems driven away from equilibrium. Similarly, we find that uniform OPO solutions can be unstable to the spontaneous formation of quantised vortices. However, metastable vortices can only be injected externally into an otherwise stable symmetric state, and their persistence is due to the OPO superfluid properties. We discuss how the currents charactering an OPO play a crucial role in the occurrence and dynamics of both metastable and spontaneous vortices.

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“…Polaritons in semiconductor microcavities are hybrid quasiparticles consisting of a superposition of cavity photons and two-dimensional collective electronic excitations (excitons) in an embedded quantum well [6]. Owing to their mutual Coulomb interaction, pump polaritons generated by a resonant optical excitation can scatter resonantly into pairs of polaritons (signal and idler) [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. In the low excitation limit, the polariton parametric scattering is a spontaneous process driven by vacuum-field fluctuations [9] whereas, already at moderate excitation intensity, it displays self-stimulation [12].…”

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Quantum Complementarity of Microcavity Polaritons

et al. 2005

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We present an experiment that probes polariton quantum correlations by exploiting quantum complementarity. Specifically, we find that polaritons in two distinct idler-modes interfere if and only if they share the same signal-mode so that "which-way" information cannot be gathered. The experimental results prove the existence of polariton pair correlations that store the "which-way" information. This interpretation is confirmed by a theoretical analysis of the measured interference visibility in terms of quantum Langevin equations.PACS numbers: 71.36.+c, 42.50.Dv, 71.35.Gg, 42.50.Nn Quantum complementarity is the essential feature distinguishing quantum from classical physics [1]. When two physical observables are complementary, the precise knowledge of one of them makes the other unpredictable. The most known manifestation of this principle is the property of quantum-mechanical entities to behave either as particles or as waves under different experimental conditions. The link between quantum correlations, quantum nonlocality and Bohr's complementarity principle was established in a series of "which-way" experiments [2,3,4,5], in which the underlying idea is the same as in Young's double-slit experiment. Due to its wave-like nature, a particle can be set up to travel along a quantum superposition of two different paths, resulting in an interference pattern. If however a "which-way" detector is employed to determine the particle's path, the particlelike behavior takes over and an interference pattern is no longer observed. These experiments have brought evidence that the loss of interference is not necessarily a consequence of the back action of a measurement process [5]. Quantum complementarity is rather an inherent property of a system, enforced by quantum correlations [1]. We investigate this manifestation of quantum mechanics for cavity polaritons. Polaritons in semiconductor microcavities are hybrid quasiparticles consisting of a superposition of cavity photons and two-dimensional collective electronic excitations (excitons) in an embedded quantum well [6]. Owing to their mutual Coulomb interaction, pump polaritons generated by a resonant optical excitation can scatter resonantly into pairs of polaritons (signal and idler) [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. In the low excitation limit, the polariton parametric scattering is a spontaneous process driven by vacuum-field fluctuations [9] whereas, already at moderate excitation intensity, it displays self-stimulation [12].

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Nonlinear Emission of Semiconductor Microcavities in the Strong Coupling Regime

Cited by 117 publications

References 16 publications

Classical treatment of parametric processes in a strong-coupling planar microcavity

Classical treatment of parametric processes in a strong-coupling planar microcavity

Vortices in Polariton OPO Superfluids

Quantum Complementarity of Microcavity Polaritons

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