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arXiv:1809.04524 · Physical Review A

Stochastic and deterministic switches in a bistable polariton micropillar under short optical pulses

Andrey V. Uvarov, Sergei S. Gavrilov, V. D. Kulakovskiĭ, Николай Алексеевич Гиппиус

Published Mar 18, 2019• 5 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Optical bistability of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities is a promising platform for digital optical devices. Steady states of coherently driven polaritons can be toggled back and forth in tens of picoseconds under short external pulses of appropriate amplitude and phase. We have analyzed the switching behavior depending on the pulse amplitude, phase, and duration. The switches are found to change dramatically when the inverse pulse duration becomes comparable to the frequency detuning between the driving field and polariton resonance. If the detuning is large compared to the polariton linewidth, the system becomes extremely sensitive to initial conditions and thus responds unpredictably.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.99.033837

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Optical bistability of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities is a promising platform for digital optical devices. Steady states of coherently driven polaritons can be toggled back and forth in tens of picoseconds under short external pulses of appropriate amplitude and phase. We have analyzed the switching behavior depending on the pulse amplitude, phase, and duration. The switches are found to change dramatically when the inverse pulse duration becomes comparable to the frequency detuning between the driving field and polariton resonance. If the detuning is large compared to the polariton linewidth, the system becomes extremely sensitive to initial conditions and thus responds unpredictably.
We present a theoretical study of spin multistability and hysteresis in resonantly pumped exciton–polaritons within semiconductor microcavities. This multistable behavior arises from the nonlinear, polarization-dependent anisotropy of polariton–polariton interactions. Unlike conventional optical bistability in spinless nonlinear optical systems, the dynamics are governed by spin-selective coupling. We calculate the steady-state polariton density and degree of circular polarization of the intracavity polariton field, demonstrating that for a fixed pump polarization, wave vector, and detuning, the degree of polarization could take on multiple values depending on the pump strength. This spin-sensitive multistability lays the groundwork for multichannel optical switches governed not just by total pump intensity but also by its pump polarization.
Experimental studies have been performed of the nonequilibrium transitions in multistable cavity-polariton systems under 10 ps long pulsed excitation, i.e., within nearly the shortest time scale necessary for the multistability to be revealed in GaAs-based microcavities. The experiments were aimed to determine the ratio of the strengths of the pair interactions between polaritons with parallel and antiparallel spins, which also was the question raised in a number of recent studies. We show that in contrast to the cases of continuous-wave or nanosecond long pumping conditions, in the fast pulse regime the system is not affected by the excitonic reservoir. The interaction between polaritons with opposite spins is definitely attractive at a nearly zero detuning of exciton and photon modes; as a result, optical response can be essentially multistable at a linearly polarized excitation. With increasing pulse duration up to 100 ps, the reservoir can start manifesting itself in a reduction of the spin multistability.
We show experimentally optical bistability and the existence of bright and dark resonator solitons in the strong coupling regime between quantum-well excitons and the optical field in a semiconductor microcavity. The strong coupling results in a quasi-particle exciton-polariton, which gives access to positive and negative reactive and dissipative optical nonlinearities, as opposed to the usual room temperature semiconductor nonlinearities possessing essentially only one sign. The existence range and the properties of solitons can be varied widely by the detuning between polariton states and light frequency.
Polaritons are quasiparticles resulting from the strong coupling between photons and excitons embedded in a semiconductor microcavity. The exciton component of polaritons provides strong nonlinear interactions, while their photonic counterpart facilitates long range coherence. Moreover, polaritons carry a pseudospin that can be accessed through the polarization state of the emitted light, and brings up spinor related nonlinear effects. This study aims at in-depth investigation of the noise related phenomena in polariton system. First, a series of experiments of polariton bistability and multistability are performed to deepen our knowledge about the effect of the biexciton creation and polariton-polariton interaction on multistable regimes in exciton polaritons. Then, using an external Gaussian noise, the polariton transition rate between two stable states of a polariton bistability is characterized. It is shown that the external noise specifications, intensity and correlation time, can efficiently modify the polariton Kramers time and residence time. We also discuss the performance of the bistable behaviour in steady state regime in terms of experimental acquisition time compared to the noise-assisted residence time. In the next part, taking advantage of polariton bistability and spin-trigger regime, we have evidenced two different types of stochastic resonance. Intensity stochastic resonance and spinor stochastic resonance. We have shown that the synergic interplay between intensity fluctuations and external modulated signal, imprinted on the DC component of the driving field, can enhance the coherent processing of an input signal buried in noise. Moreover, we evidence that, due to the exceptional spin properties of polaritons, a noisy modulated polarized input signal can drive the switching of a fully polarized polariton population. This effect unveils an original field of stochastic resonance which we called as spinor stochastic resonance. All experimental results are well reproduced by a model based on Gross-Pitaevskii equation. At the end, the influence of nonlinear interactions on polariton intensity fluctuations and probability distribution have been investigated.
A transient spectroscopy technique for studying near-condensate modes of exciton polaritons in high-quality-factor planar semiconductor microcavities is proposed. It is demonstrated that, under the conditions of coherent external pumping, the transition to the upper steady state of an optically bistable condensate is accompanied by the excitation of near-condensate modes. They manifest themselves in the appearance of transient oscillations of the polariton intensity as the system switches to the upper branch of the S-shaped bistable pump dependence of the intensity. Analysis of the time-resolved spectra of these oscillations provides information on interactions in the system and the evolution of the exciton-polariton condensate density.
We have carried out an extensive series of experiments on coherent control of semiconductor quantum microcavities. In these experiments, a phase-locked femtosecond optical pulse pair is used to excite the lower normal mode (cavity polariton), thereby controlling the reflection of a signal pulse tuned to the upper normal mode. Such a controlled reflection may be used as an all-optical switch with picosecond switching time. We have demonstrated that the effect of the microcavity is to provide a huge enhancement of the coherently controlled response compared to bare quantum wells. We have investigated in detail the microscopic physical processes responsible for the nonlinear optical response; the measured response fits well with theories based on the electron-hole Hamiltonian in the coherent-X(5) and 2nd-Born approximations. The physical limits to the coherent control are determined by excitation-induced dephasing; this limits the applicability of the switch in practical terms. We have discovered that the use of phase-locked excitation pulses is that one can generate novel intraband coherences in the quantum wells, arising from true quantum correlations between the cavity field and the carrier populations. The discovery of this effect was perhaps the first genuinely quantum optical effect observed in semiconductor microcavities.