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Optics Letters

Optical bistability and spatial resonator solitons based on exciton-polariton nonlinearity

Ye. Larionova, W. Stolz, Carl O. Weiss

Published Feb 6, 2008• 39 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1364/ol.33.000321

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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.
Optical bistability and bright and dark resonator solitons exist in semiconductor resonator at room temperature [C.O. Weis and Ye. Larionova, Rep. Prog. Phys. 70 (2007) 255-335], with the usual semiconductor nonlinearity. At low temperature in the strong coupling regime between quantum well excitons and the optical field in a semiconductor microcavity the nonlinearities are strong and based on “polariton nonlinearity”. 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 type of nonlinearity and the properties of solitons can be varied widely by the detuning between the photon- and exciton resonances. We show for the first time experimentally the existence of patterns, bright and dark solitons based on polariton nonlinearity. 1. INTRODUCTION Bright and dark spatial solitons were shown to exist in such microresonators with and without population inversion [1-3]. At room temperature the nonlinearity which is at the origin of the soliton existence is the usual mixed absorptive/refractive semiconductor nonlinearity which can have transverse effects (e.g. self-focusing) and longitudinal effects such as nonlinear resonance, both ingredients for soliton stability. At low temperature (or at large exciton binding energies) the exciton, which merges with the absorption band at room temperature, is well separated spectrally from the absorption band so that the nonlinearity becomes that of a 2-level system. If the exciton resonance is strongly coupled with the field inside a resonator the exciton- and the photon resonances mix. At coincidence of the two resonance frequencies, the photon- and the exciton resonances hybridize in an avoided crossing and the two hybrid resonances are ascribed to a quasi-particle, the excitonpolariton. This quasi-particle has unusual optical properties. E.g. is the photon nonlinearity determined by exciton collisions. That the exciton-polariton system has interesting nonlinearities (e.g. induced absorption as opposed to the usual saturable absorption) has been shown previously [4]. It was realized that semiconductor microresonators in the strong field-exciton coupling regime might show optical bistability and first experimental proofs for bistability were given recently [5]. As optical bistability of a resonator is a precondition for the existence of spatial resonator solitons, the question arises whether semiconductor microresonators with polariton nonlinearity can support spatial resonator solitons, which, as a consequence of the large nonlinearity of the polaritons, could be expected to exist at rather small light intensities, as it is of importance for all applications. 2. EXPERIMENTAL ARRANGEMENT AND RESULTS The cooled resonator sample (4 K) is illuminated by light at the polariton resonance wavelengths, and the light reflected from the resonator is observed. The light source is a Ar
We propose a mechanism for achieving optical bistability in semiconductor heterostructures. In contrast to the well-known refractive shift of the Fabry-Perot mode in macroscopic resonators, we consider the bleaching of the exciton Rabi splitting in strong-coupling microcavities and prove that this nonlinear process leads to an optically bistable behavior. Through a model based on the transfer-matrix formalism, we predict the dependence of this effect on specific material parameters and on the nature of the cavity. Numerical calculations are carried out for quantum well embedded cavities and the possibility of room-temperature bistable operation is also discussed. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Bright and dark spatial solitons are observed in an optically pumped semiconductor resonator. The pumping allows us to reduce considerably the light intensity necessary for the existence of the solitons and alleviates thermal load problems. Experiments are found to agree qualitatively with calculations based on a simple large-aperture semiconductor resonator model. The role of the signs of the absorptive and reactive nonlinearities in soliton existence is discussed in relation to the nonlinear resonance effect, the tilted-wave mechanism of pattern formation, and the sign of the population inversion.
The impact of quantum fluctuations on the properties of quantum well excitons excited inside 0D semiconductor microcavity possessing strong light confinement is analysed. The analysis takes into account the exciton-exciton repulsion and the presence of a reservoir. Analytical solutions are obtained for the generalized Glauber P-function of the system in the adiabatic limit. Destabilization of the homogeneous nonlinear solution belonging to the lower bistability branch in the presence of quantum noise is predicted.
We discuss optical nonlinearities in biased semiconductor microcavities. Optical nonlinearities arise from field screening by spatially separated electron–hole pairs in biased quantum wells (QWs). However, in wide QWs where the spatial separation is large, biasing is accompanied by a drastic decrease of oscillator strength, and has a negative impact on the optical nonlinearity. We show here that in an exciton polariton microcavity in the strong coupling regime, a decrease in oscillator strength only weakly affects the optical nonlinearity. Gigantic enhancement of photon–photon interaction is then realized by biasing, and the single-photon blockade limit can be reached.