Nonlinear dynamics of polariton scattering in semiconductor microcavity: bistability vs stimulated scattering

We demonstrate experimentally an unusual behavior of the parametric polariton scattering in semiconductor microcavity under a strong cw resonant excitation. The maximum of the scattered signal above the threshold of stimulated parametric scattering does not shift along the microcavity lower polariton branch with the change of pump detuning or angle of incidence but is stuck around the normal direction. We show theoretically that such a behavior can be modelled numerically by a system of Maxwell and nonlinear Schroedinger equations for cavity polaritons and explained via the competition between the bistability of a driven nonlinear MC polariton and the instabilities of parametric polariton-polariton scattering.Comment: 5 pages, 4 Postscript figures; corrected typo

Terahertz emitters based on microcavity dipolaritons

We propose the use of dipolaritons -- quantum well excitons with large dipole moment, coupled to a planar microcavity -- for generating terahertz (THz) radiation. This is achieved by exciting the system with two THz detuned lasers that leads to dipole moment oscillations of the exciton polariton at the detuning frequency, thus generating a THz emission. We have optimized the structural parameters of a system with microcavity embedded AlGaAs double quantum wells and shown that the THz emission intensity is maximized if the laser frequencies both match different dipolariton states. The influence of the electronic tunnel coupling between the wells on the frequency and intensity of the THz radiation is also investigated, demonstrating a trade-off between the polariton dipole moment and the Rabi splitting.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. This article has been submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Nonlinear emission dynamics of a GaAs microcavity with embedded quantum wells

The emission dynamics of a GaAs microcavity at different angles of observation with respect to the sample normal under conditions of nonresonant picosecond-pulse excitation is measured. At sufficiently high excitation densities, the decay time of the lower-polariton emission increases with the polariton wavevector; at low excitation densities the decay time is independent of the wavevector. The effect of additional nonresonant continuous illumination on the emission originating from the bottom of the lower polariton branch is investigated. The additional illumination leads to a substantial increase in the emission intensity (considerably larger than the intensity of the photoluminescence excited by this illumination alone). This fact is explained in terms of acceleration of the polariton relaxation to the radiative states due to scattering by charge carriers created by the additional illumination. The results obtained show, that at large negative detunings between the photon and exciton modes, polariton-polariton and polariton-free carrier scattering are the main processes responsible for the filling of states near the bottom of the lower polariton branch.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Physics: Condesed Matter. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from i

Spin multistability of cavity polaritons in a magnetic field

Spin transitions are studied theoretically and experimentally in a resonantly excited system of cavity polaritons in a magnetic field. Weak pair interactions in this boson system make possible fast and massive spin flips occurring at critical amplitudes due to the interplay between amplitude dependent shifts of eigenstates and the Zeeman splitting. Dominant spin of a condensate can be toggled forth and back by tuning of the pump intensity only, which opens the way for ultra-fast spin switchings of polariton condensates on a picosecond timescale.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Kinetics of stimulated polariton scattering in planar microcavities: Evidence for a dynamically self-organized optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrate for the first time the strong temporal hysteresis effects in the kinetics of the pumped and scattered polariton populations in a planar semiconductor microcavity under a nano-second-long pulsed resonant (by frequency and angle) excitation above the lower polariton branch. The hysteresis effects are explained in the model of multi-mode scattering when the bistability of the nonlinear pumped polariton is accompanied by the explosive growth of the scattered polaritons population. Subsequent self-organization process in the nonlinear polariton system results in a new -- dynamically self-organized -- type of optical parametric oscillator.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Dynamics of spatial coherence and momentum distribution of polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity under conditions of Bose-Einstein condensation

The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project nos. 12-02-33091, 13-02-12197, and 14-02-01073) and the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The work of V.V.B. was supported in part by a scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation.The dynamics of spatial coherence and momentum distribution of polaritons in the regime of Bose-Einstein condensation in a GaAs microcavity with embedded quantum wells under nonresonant excitation with picosecond laser pulses are investigated. It is shown that the establishment of the condensate coherence is accompanied by narrowing of the polariton momentum distribution. At the same time, at sufficiently high excitation densities, there is significant qualitative discrepancy between the dynamic behavior of the width of the polariton momentum distribution determined from direct measurements and that calculated from the spatial distribution of coherence. This discrepancy is observed at the fast initial stage of the polariton system kinetics and, apparently, results from the strong spatial nonuniformity of the phase of the condensate wavefunction, which equilibrates on a much longer time scale.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Loss of coherence in cavity-polariton condensates: effect of disorder vs. exciton reservoir

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 14-12-01372) and the State of Bavaria.Time evolution of long-range spatial coherence in a freely decaying cavity-polariton condensate excited resonantly in a high-Q GaAs microcavity (MC) is found to be qualitatively different from that in nonresonantly excited condensates. The first-order spatial correlation function g(1)(r1, r2) in response to resonant 1.5 ps pump pulses at normal incidence leaving the exciton reservoir empty is found to be nearly independent of the excitation density. g(1) exceeds 0.7 within the excited spot and decreases very slowly in the decaying and expanding condensate. It remains above 0.5 until the polariton blueshift α|ψ2| gets comparable to the characteristic amplitude of the disorder potential δELP . The disorder is found to reveal itself at α|ψ2| ≤ δELP in fast and short-range phase fluctuations as well as vortex formation. They lead to oscillations in g(1)(t), but have little effect on the overall coherence, which is well reproduced in the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equations.PostprintPeer reviewe

Biexciton oscillator strength

Our goal is to provide a physical understanding of the elementary coupling between photon and biexciton and to derive the physical characteristics of the biexciton oscillator strength, following the procedure we used for trion. Instead of the more standard two-photon absorption, this work concentrates on molecular biexciton created by photon absorption in an exciton gas. We first determine the appropriate set of coordinates in real and momentum spaces to describe one biexciton as two interacting excitons. We then turn to second quantization and introduce the "Fourier transform in the exciton sense" of the biexciton wave function which is the relevant quantity for oscillator strength. We find that, like for trion, the oscillator strength for the formation of one biexciton out of one photon plus a \emph{single} exciton is extremely small: it is one biexciton volume divided by one sample volume smaller than the exciton oscillator strength. However, due to their quantum nature, trion and biexciton have absorption lines which behave quite differently. Electrons and trions are fermionic particles impossible to pile up all at the same energy. This would make the weak trion line spread with electron density, the peak structure only coming from singular many-body effects. By contrast, the bosonic nature of exciton and biexciton makes the biexciton peak mainly rise with exciton density, this rise being simply linear if we forget many-body effects between the photocreated exciton and the excitons present in the sample