S. S. Gavrilov

Polarization Bistability and Resultant Spin Rings in Semiconductor Microcavities

The transmission of a pump laser resonant with the lower polariton branch of a semiconductor microcavity is shown to be highly dependent on the degree of circular polarization of the pump. Spin dependent anisotropy of polariton-polariton interactions allows the internal polarization to be controlled by varying the pump power. The formation of spatial patterns, spin rings with a high degree of circular polarization, arising as a result of polarization bistability, is observed. A phenomenological model based on effective semiclassical equations of motion provides a good description of the experimental results. Inclusion of interactions with the incoherent exciton reservoir, which provides spin-independent blueshifts of the polariton modes, is found to be essential.

Effect of polariton-polariton interactions on the excitation spectrum of a nonequilibrium condensate in a periodic potential

Polariton condensates are investigated in periodical potentials created by surface acoustic waves (SAWs) using both coherent and incoherent optical excitation. Under coherent resonant pumping, condensates are formed due to polariton-parametric scattering from the pump. In this case, the excitation spectrum of the condensate shows a strong reduction of the energy gap arising from the acoustic modulation, indicating efficient screening of the SAW potential by spatial modulation of the polariton density. The observed results are in good agreement with a model based on generalized Gross-Pitaveskii equations, with account taken of the spatial dependence of the exciton energy landscape. In the case of incoherent pumping, coexisting nonequilibrium condensates with s -a nd p-type wavefunctions are observed, which have different energies, symmetry, and spatial coherence. The energy splitting between these condensate states is also reduced with respect to the gap of the one particle spectrum below threshold, but the screening effect is less pronounced than in the case of coherently pumped system due to weaker modulation of the pump state. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.155423

Multistability of the optical response in a system of quasi-two-dimensional exciton polaritons

The nonlinear dynamic properties of a system of polaritons in a planar semiconductor microcavity under conditions of external coherent photoexcitation have been investigated. It has been shown that the interaction between polaritons with identical projections of the total angular momentum (Jz) can give rise to multistability of the response of the excited polariton state. As a result, nonequilibrium transitions between different stability branches become possible due to fluctuations or arbitrarily smooth variations of the excitation parameters and occur with abrupt changes in the intensity and optical polarization of the field in the microcavity. It has been demonstrated that a relatively weak attraction between polaritons with opposite total angular momenta Jz leads to a possibility of spontaneously breaking the symmetry of circularly polarized field components in the microcavity under strictly linear (symmetric) polarization conditions of external excitation.

Bistability and nonequilibrium transitions in the system of cavity polaritons under nanosecond-long resonant excitation

The polarization dependence of nonequilibrium transitions in a multistable cavity-polariton system is studied under a nanosecond long resonant optical excitation at the normal and magic angle incidences with various polarizations of the pump beam. The temporal correlations between the frequency, intensity, and optical polarization of the intra-cavity field, which all undergo sharp threshold-like changes due to the spin dependent interaction of cavity polaritons, are visualized. The observed dynamics cannot be reproduced within the conventional semi-classical model based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equations. To explain the observed phenomena, it is necessary to take into account the unpolarized exciton reservoir which brings on additional blueshift of bright excitons, equal in the

Hard mode of stimulated scattering in the system of quasi-two-dimensional exciton polaritons

\sigma^+

Polarization instability in a polariton system in semiconductor microcavities

and

Polariton Pattern Formation and Photon Statistics of the Associated Emission

\sigma^-

On the possibility of acousto-optic control of spin states of a polariton condensate

polarization components. This model explains the effect of polarization instability under both pulsed and continuous wave resonant excitation conditions, consistently with the spin ring pattern formation that has recently been observed under Gaussian shaped excitation.

Controlled spin pattern formation in multistable cavity–polariton systems

Dynamics of stimulated scattering of quasi-two-dimensional exciton polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity is considered theoretically. A system possessing a bistable response to coherent excitation is studied. Being a system of weakly interacting Bose particles under strongly nonequilibrium conditions, it exhibits a complex dynamics of the development of condensate modes. It is shown that multimode instability can arise in a threshold way in the system under a smooth increase in pump intensity. In this case, rapid populating of a multitude of unstable modes leads to stochastization of scattering, and evolution to a quasi-steady macrostate is performed as self-organization in an open nonequilibrium system. Arising fluctuations lead to the occurrence of a spatial nonuniformity of the distribution of scattered states.

Transient spectroscopy of near-condensate modes in the system of exciton polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity

The kinetics of a field on a quantum well in the active region of a planar microcavity with strong exciton-photon coupling has been investigated under the conditions of resonance pulse excitation by a small degree of circular polarization. It has been shown that the system of polaritons at the early stage of the development of instability induced by polariton-polariton interaction tends to transit to a circularly polarized state, but does not reach 100% circular polarization and returns to a polarized state whose polarization is close to the pump polarization. It has been shown that the observed effects are caused by the excitation of an unpolarized reservoir of excitons in quantum wells, which leads to fast relaxation of the difference between the effective resonance frequencies of excitons with different circular polarizations.