Electroluminescence of excitons in an InGaAs quantum well

We report on electrical injection of excitons in a quantum well placed in the intrinsic region of a p–i–n photodiode. Both the narrow linewidth of the electroluminescence at 70 K and the evolution of the emission spectra with increasing current are signatures of the excitonic character of the emission. This structure is ready to be integrated in semiconductor microcavities in order to evidence the strong coupling regime under electrical injection.     

Optical properties of microcavity polaritons

This work contains a theoretical analysis of the optical properties of semiconductor quantum wells embedded in planar Fabry-Perot microcavities. In particular, the properties of the system in correspondence to the excitonic transition are studied by means of the polariton formalism. The polariton states in microcavities are derived and the polar-iton dispersion is presented. Particular emphasis is put on the existence of two well distinct regimes depending on the exciton and cavity parameters: strong coupling and weak coupling regime. The main experimental results are reviewed and compared with the prediction of the theory. After the polariton states have been characterized, the optical response of the system is discussed, with particular attention to the photoluminescence measurements. The polariton formation and relaxation through phonon scattering and the effect of the exciton inhomogeneous broadening are considered and, finally, a phe-nomenological model for the polariton photoluminescence spectra is presented.     

Strong coupling between surface plasmons and excitons in an organic semiconductor

We report on the observation of a strong coupling between a surface plasmon and an exciton. Reflectometry experiments are performed on an organic semiconductor, namely, cyanide dye J aggregates, deposited on a silver film. The dispersion lines present an anticrossing that is the signature of a strong plasmon-exciton coupling. Mixed states are formed in a similar way as microcavities polaritons. The Rabi splitting characteristic of this coupling reaches 180 meV at room temperature. The emission of the low energy plasmon-exciton mixed state has been observed and is largely shifted from the uncoupled emission.     

Direct observation of whispering gallery mode polaritons and their dispersion in a ZnO tapered microcavity

We report direct observation of the strong exciton-photon coupling in a ZnO tapered whispering gallery (WG) microcavity at room temperature. By scanning excitations along the tapered arm of the ZnO tetrapod using a micro-photoluminescence spectrometer with different polarizations, we observed a transition from the pure WG optical modes in the weak interaction regime to the excitonic polariton in the strong coupling regime. The experimental observations are well described by using the plane wave model including the excitonic polariton dispersion relation. This provides a direct mapping of the polariton dispersion, and thus a comprehensive picture for coupling of different excitons with differently polarized WG modes.     

Exciton warming in III–V semiconductors and microcavities

We present a time resolved experiment in which we dynamically tailor the occupation and temperature of a photogenerated exciton distribution in QWs by excitation with two delayed picosecond pulses. The modification of the excitonic distribution results in ultrafast changes in the PL dynamics. Our experimental results are well accounted by a quasiequilibrium thermodynamical model, which includes the occupation and momentum distribution of the excitons. We use this model and the two-pulse experimental technique to study the polariton dynamics in InGaAs-based microcavities in the strong coupling regime. In particular, we demonstrate that resonantly injected upper polaritons mainly relax to the lower polariton branch via scattering to large momentum polariton states, producing the warming of the polariton reservoir.     

Angle-resonant stimulated polariton amplifier

We experimentally demonstrate resonant coupling between photons and excitons in microcavities which can efficiently generate enormous single-pass optical gains approaching 100. This new parametric phenomenon appears as a sharp angular resonance of the incoming pump beam, at which the moving excitonic polaritons undergo very large changes in momentum. Ultrafast stimulated scattering is clearly identified from the exponential dependence on pump intensity. This device utilizes boson amplification induced by stimulated energy relaxation.     

Influence of optical confinement and excitonic absorption on strong coupling in a bulk GaN microcavity grown on silicon

We report the optical study of a lambda-thick GaN microcavity grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a silicon substrate. Angle-resolved reflectivity measurements evidence the strong coupling regime at room temperature on the half cavity (without the top mirror), but at low temperature, the high excitonic absorption quenches the optical cavity mode at the excitonic energies. On the whole microcavity, the improved quality factor leads to the observation of the polariton emission whatever the temperature. No bottleneck is observed at 70 K even at low pumping power and large negative detuning. The impact of the optical confinement and the excitonic absorption, studied through reflectivity measurements are accurately reproduced by the transfer-matrix formalism. The optimization of the design in this structure leads to a large Rabi splitting (52 meV) at room temperature.     

Fabrication of the Fully Hybrid Microcavities Based on Zn(S)Se Epilayers and Amorphous Dielectrics

A technique of fabrication of fully-hybrid microcavities using II-VI semiconductor compound epilayers and distributed Bragg reflectors based on amorphous dielectric coating is described. The fully hybrid microcavities with Zn(S)Se epilayers are created. High structural and optical quality of the embedded Zn(S)Se thin films was established by atomic-force microscopy and optic studies. The analysis of excitonic spectra for Zn(S)Se epilayers embedded in the fully hybrid microcavities indicates that such structure can be perspective for creation of a new type of light-emitting devices – polariton lasers.     

Polariton-polariton kinematic interaction modulation and kinematic bipolaritons in organic microcavities

We study polariton-polariton kinematic interactions in organic microcavities. Using the Agranovich-Toshich transformation, to transform the Frenkel excitons from Paulions into Bosons, the exciton-exciton kinematic interaction is derived. In the strong coupling regime, the polariton excitonic part results in the polariton-polariton kinematic interaction. The scattering amplitude is calculated and the effective potential is obtained for a scattering between two free polaritons. The effective potential can be modulated by changing the exciton-cavity photon detuning, and we show the crossover of the effective potential from attractive into repulsive one. A pole in the two-particle Green's function is the signature of the formation of polariton bound state, i.e. bipolariton. Due to the smallness of the polariton effective mass, the obtained bound state is very shallow and appears below the minimum of the lower polariton branch, and falls inside the natural bandwidth of the polariton branch.     

Strong light‐matter coupling between a molecular vibrational mode in a PMMA film and a low‐loss mid‐IR microcavity

Microcavity devices exhibiting strong light‐matter coupling in the mid‐infrared spectral range offer the potential to explore exciting open physical questions pertaining to energy transfer between heat and light and can lead to a new generation of efficient wavelength tunable mid‐infrared sources of coherent light based on polariton Bose‐Einstein Condensation. Vibrational transitions of organic molecules, which often have strong absorption peaks in the infrared and considerably narrower linewidths than organic excitonic resonances, can generate polaritonic states in the mid‐infrared spectral range using microcavity devices. Here, narrow linewidth polaritonic resonances are exhibited in the mid‐infrared by coupling the carbonyl stretch vibrational transition of a polymethyl methacrylate film to the photonic resonance of a low optical‐loss mid‐infrared microcavity, which consisted of two Ge/ZnS dielectric Bragg reflectors. Rabi‐splitting of 14.3 meV is observed, with a 4.4 meV polariton linewidth at anti‐crossing. The large Rabi‐splitting relative to linewidth indicates efficient impedance‐matching between the bare vibrational and photonic states, and suggests molecular‐vibration polaritons incorporated in dielectric microcavities can be an enabling step towards realizing polariton optical switching and polariton condensation in the mid‐infrared spectral range.     

Strong coupling of quantum dots in microcavities

We show that strong coupling (SC) of light and matter as it is realized with quantum dots in microcavities differs substantially from the paradigm of atoms in optical cavities. The type of pumping used in semiconductors yields new criteria to achieve SC, with situations where the pump hinders, or on the contrary, favors it. We analyze one of the seminal experimental observation of SC of a quantum dot in a pillar microcavity [Reithmaier, Nature (London) 432, 197 (2004)10.1038/nature02969] as an illustration of our main statements.     

Excitonic polaron and phonon assisted photoluminescence of ZnO nanowires

The coupling strength of the radiative transition of hexagonal ZnO nanowires to the longitudinal optic (LO) phonon polarization field is deduced from temperature dependent photoluminescence spectra. An excitonic polaron formation is discussed to explain why the interaction of free excitons with LO phonons in ZnO nanowires is much stronger than that of bound excitons with LO phonons. The strong exciton-phonon coupling in ZnO nanowires affects not only the Haung-Ray S factor but also the FXA-1LO phonon energy spacing, which can be explained by the excitonic polaron formation.     

Temperature dependence of excitonic luminescence from nanocrystalline ZnO films

The properties of the excitonic luminescence for nanocrystalline ZnO thin films are investigated by using the dependence of excitonic photoluminescence (PL) spectra on temperature. The ZnO thin films are prepared by thermal oxidation of ZnS films prepared by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicates that ZnO thin films have a polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure with a preferred (0 0 2) orientation. A strong ultraviolet (UV) emission peak at 3.26 eV is observed, while the deep-level emission band is barely observable at room temperature. The strength of the exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon coupling is deduced from the temperature dependence of the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the fundamental excitonic peak, decrease in exciton-longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon coupling strength is due to the quantum confinement effect.     

Engineering geometric phase in semiconductor microcavities

We present rigorous investigations of the geometric phase in semiconductor microcavities. The effects of excitonic spontaneous emission, initial state setting and cavity dissipation have been discussed. It is shown that the geometric phase decays exponentially due to the presence of excitonic spontaneous emission. More importantly, the inclusion of the phase shift leads to an enhanced sensitivity for the control of the geometric phase evolution and system dynamics.     

Optical absorption and electromagnetically induced transparency in semiconductor quantum well driven by intense terahertz field

An approach for solving the excitonic absorption in a semiconductor quantum well driven by an intense terahertz field is presented.The formalism relies on the stationary single-photon Schro¨dinger equation in the full quantum mechanical framework.The optical absorption dynamics in both weak and strong couplings are discussed and compared.The excitonic absorption spectra show the Autler-Townes doublets for the resonance terahertz field,a replica peak for the non-resonance terahertz field,and the electromagnetically induced transparency phenomenon for modulating the decay rate of the second electron state in the weak coupling.In particular,the electromagnetically induced transparency phenomenon window range is discussed.In the strong coupling region,the multi-order energy level resonance splitting due to the strong optical field is found.There are three(non-resonance terahertz field) or four(resonance terahertz field) peaks in the optical absorption spectra.This work provides a simple and convenient approach to deal with the optical absorption in the exciton system.     

Excitons in microcavities: Cavity polariton photoluminescence

Il Nuovo Cimento D - We present an extensive set of absorption and PL measurements on semiconductor microcavities in the strong-coupling regime. We observe strong coupling from 110 K to room...     

Intersubband vs interband-light coupling in semiconductors

This paper presents a direct comparison and contrast of strong light coupling with either interband or intersubband excitations in semiconductors. The approach is based on analytical expressions obtained after a series of systematic approximations starting from Nonequilibrium Greens Functions and Semiconductor Bloch Equations. Numerical results for III–V quantum wells embedded in microcavities are presented.