Polariton laser using a designable microcavity

Exciton-polaritons in 2D semiconductor microcavities provide a unique photonic platform that manifests non-equilibrium quantum orders. It combines strong nonlinearity and rich many-body physics of matter with robust coherence and ready accessibility of light, allowing diverse quantum phenomena at high temperature and on a chip-scale, photonic platform. To go beyond 2D condensation physics, it becomes important to control the fundamental properties of polaritons without destroying the quantum orders. I will discuss an unconventional, designable microcavity system. It incorporates a slab photonic crystal as one of the cavity mirrors to confine, control and couple polaritons in a non-destructive and scalable manner.

We show that strong-coupling can be established in the new cavity system. By design of the mirror, we can control fundamental properties of polaritons, including polarization, energy-momentum dispersion, and dimensionality. Coupled polariton systems are readily created. Utilizing the high mode-selectivity of the cavity, we achieve single-mode polariton lasing, which, unlike (quasi) 2D polariton lasers demonstrated in the past, features Poisson intensity noise expected of a coherent state and strong condensate interactions manifested in Gaussian line-broadening of the polariton laser. Such a 0D polariton lasers provides a building block for coupled polariton lattices with designable fundamental properties. ​​