Polariton amplification in semiconductor microcavities
Microcavity exciton polaritons, the fundamental optical excitations of semiconductor microcavities with quantum wells inside, have been proposed as promising candidates for observing stimulated scattering, condensation and other phenomena related to the bosonic nature of excitons. Having a light mass, quantum degeneracy of polaritons can be reached at low densities and high temperatures. But the radiative time of polaritons is very short (in the picosecond range) and usually prevents an efficient thermalization and cooling of the excited cloud of polaritons. A 'coherently-driven condensate', not corresponding to a thermal equilibrium, but featuring multiple occupation of single-particle states, can however be created by an external laser source resonantly exciting polaritons. Under this condition, stimulated parametric scattering of polaritons can provide huge optical gain on a weak probe pulse shined on the sample. In this work we demonstrate that this phenomenon can survive at temperatures close to room temperature and could be achieved in the next future even above this limit. Clever sample designs favour the thermal robustness of polariton parametric amplification, but from the experimental data it turns out that the parameter that ultimately limits the highest temperature for polariton parametric scattering is the exciton binding energy. (C) 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
WOS:000184924800011
2003
238
3
432
438
Ecole Polytech Fed Lausanne, Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Inst Quantum Elect & Photon, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Univ Calif San Diego, Dept Phys, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA. Saba, M, MIT, Ctr Ultracold Atoms, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA.
ISI Document Delivery No.: 714QK
Cited Reference Count: 29
Cited References:
BAUMBERG JJ, 2000, PHYS REV B, V62, P16247
BLOCH J, 1998, APPL PHYS LETT, V73, P1694
BUTOV LV, 2001, PHYS REV LETT, V86, P5608
BUTOV LV, 2002, NATURE, V417, P47
BUTOV LV, 2002, NATURE, V418, P751
CIUTI C, 2000, PHYS REV B, V62, R4825
CIUTI C, 2001, PHYS REV B, V63
DANG LS, 1998, PHYS REV LETT, V81, P3920
DASBACH G, 2000, PHYS REV B, V62, P13076
DENG H, 2002, SCIENCE, V298, P199
EASTHAM PR, 2001, PHYS REV B, V64
ERLAND J, 2001, PHYS REV LETT, V86, P5791
GRIFFIN A, 1995, BOSE EINSTEIN CONDEN
HOUDRE R, 2000, PHYS REV LETT, V85, P2793
HUANG R, 2000, PHYS REV B, V61, R7854
IMAMOGLU A, 1996, PHYS REV A, V53, P4250
MESSIN G, 2001, PHYS REV LETT, V87
MOSKALENKO SA, 2000, BOSE EINSTEIN CONDEN
PAU S, 1995, PHYS REV B, V51, P7090
SABA M, 2001, NATURE, V414, P731
SAVASTA S, 2003, PHYS REV LETT, V90
SAVVIDIS PG, 2000, PHYS REV B, V62, P13278
SAVVIDIS PG, 2000, PHYS REV LETT, V84, P1547
SAVVIDIS PG, 2001, PHYS REV B, V64
SENELLART P, 1999, PHYS REV LETT, V82, P1233
SENELLART P, 2000, PHYS REV B, V62
SNOKE D, 2002, NATURE, V418, P754
STEVENSON RM, 2000, PHYS REV LETT, V85, P3680
WEISBUCH C, 1992, PHYS REV LETT, V69, P3314
REVIEWED