Resonant acousto-optics of microcavity polaritons

Abstract

We propose and analyze theoretically a resonant acousto-optic Stark effect for microcavity (MC) polaritons parametrically driven by a surface acoustic wave. For GaAs-based microcavities our scheme "acoustic pumping -optical probing" deals with surface acoustic waves of frequency νSAW ≃ 0.5 − 3 GHz and intensity ISAW ≃ 0.1 − 10 mW/mm. The acoustically-induced stop gaps in the MC polariton spectrum drastically change the optical response of MC polaritons. Because an acoustically pumped intrinsic semiconductor microcavity remains in its ground electronic state, no many-body effects screen and weaken the resonant acousto-optic Stark effect. In the meantime, this allows us to work out an exactly-solvable model for resonant acousto-optics of MC polaritons which deals with giant acousto-optical nonlinearities. Finally, we discuss possible applications of the proposed resonant acoustic Stark effect for optical modulation and switching and describe an acousto-optic device based on a (GaAs) microcavity driven by a surface acoustic wave. 63.20.Ls

Phonon-Induced Polariton Superlattices

“…> 2 ! ' as a result of the stronger coupling of phonons to excitons [20]. The periodic perturbations expressed by Eqs.…”

The Green function of cavity polariton with radiative correction: a new description of resonant second-order optical processes

“…In terms of this Green function, the solution of equation ( 1) is given by E(r, ω) = E (cav) 0 (r, ω) + dr g(r, r ) • P (1) x (r , ω) + P (r , ω) . (9) Note that the polarization source in the integrand consists of P (1) x and P , and that the incident field E (cav) 0 includes the effect of multiple scattering due to background dielectrics. We now proceed to include the linear polarization P (1) x into the Green function, which we call the Green function of cavity polariton G cp (r, r , ω).…”

“…Then, the self-consistently determined field is given by equation (26), which contains various 'dynamically Bragg scattered terms'. Such terms will be enhanced, when the acoustic phonon of given k and connects two points on cavity polariton branches [9].…”

Bragg Diffraction of Microcavity Polaritons by a Surface Acoustic Wave

“…The nonresonant acousto-optic nonlinearities, which give rise to the acoustically-induced diffraction grating, is due to the photoelastic effect. In sharp contrast with this mechanism, the resonant acousto-optic effect [7,8] for bulk and microcavity (MC) polaritons deals with a quantum diffraction of optically-induced, virtual excitons by the coherent acoustic wave. In this case the interaction of two "matter" waves, the excitonic polarization and the acoustic field, is much more effective than the nonresonant photoelastic coupling of photons with acoustic phonons.…”

“…In this Letter we propose and calculate the acoustooptic Bragg scattering of SAW-driven polaritons. The MC polariton eigenstates in GaAs λ-cavities [9,10,11] are relevant to the proposed Bragg spectroscopy, due to compatibility of GaAs microcavities with the SAW technique [12] and due to a possibility to realize onedimensional geometry for the resonant, SAW-mediated interaction of two counter-propagating MC polaritons by using ν SAW < ∼ 3 GHz [8]. As we demonstrate below, the Bragg spectra of MC polaritons are resonantly enhanced by the quantum well (QW) exciton state and consist of the well-developed multiple replicas with a robust structure.…”