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physica status solidi (a)

Experimental evidence of bistability in a semiconductor microcavity

Massimo Gurioli, Lucia Cavigli, G. Khitrova, H. M. Gibbs

Published Mar 1, 2004• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical bistability in a semiconductor microcavity showing normal mode coupling regime is observed by means of reflectivity and resonant Rayleigh scattering experiments. A third resonance, spectrally lying between the two normal modes, suddenly appears in the optical response when increasing the excitation power. Hysteresis loops are found when monitoring the microcavity optical response at the energy of the third peak. Our experimental findings can not be accounted for simply by exciton bleaching. We conclude that other non-linear mechanisms are relevant in explaining the presence of the third peak and the observed bistable behaviour. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

DOI
10.1002/pssa.200304075

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•Jan 1, 1997•1 citation
Optical bistability in a semiconductor microcavity showing normal mode coupling regime is observed by means of reflectivity and resonant Rayleigh scattering experiments. A third resonance, spectrally lying between the two normal modes, suddenly appears in the optical response when increasing the excitation power. Hysteresis loops are found when monitoring the microcavity optical response at the energy of the third peak. Our experimental findings can not be accounted for simply by exciton bleaching. We conclude that other non-linear mechanisms are relevant in explaining the presence of the third peak and the observed bistable behaviour. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
We report the experimental observation of hysteresis in the optical response of a semiconductor microcavity under normal mode coupling regime. A third resonance mode, spectrally lying at the bare cavity mode frequency, suddenly appears in the reflectivity and resonant Rayleigh scattering spectra when increasing the excitation power, resulting in a coexistence of three resonance modes. Bistability loops in both microcavity optical response are found at the energy of this third mode. Associated to the bistability, laserlike emission occurs at the bare cavity mode.
We report an experimental study of the optical bistability in a semiconductor microcavity (MC), consisting of a wedged λ GaAs spacer containing a single 8.5 nm In 0.04 Ga 0.96 As quantum well (QW). Increasing the excitation power, a transition between the normal coupling and the weak coupling regime of the MC modes is observed. At intermediate excitation power the reflectivity spectrum shows the simultaneous presence of three resonances, with a third peak spectrally lying between the two normal modes. Monitoring the reflected signal for different laser energy as a function of the excitation power, we found that optical bistability is observed only at the energy of the third peak. The experimental findings do not agree with transfer matrix calculations based on exciton bleaching, suggesting that more complex nonlinear mechanisms are relevant in the observed bistable behaviour.
Abstract We report the observation of optical bistability in a semiconductor microcavity pumped at the “magic angle” above the parametric oscillation threshold. Experimental evidence is given in the form of a hysteresis cycle of the nonlinear emission as a function of the pump intensity. A model analogous to those developped for triply resonant Optical Parametric Oscillators (OPO) is in good agreement with the experimental findings. In the second part, we study the potential application of the parametric oscillation regime to quantum optics. The quantum correlations between the emitted “signal” and “idler” beams are computed. We show that very strong quantum correlations between the signal and idler polaritons can be achieved. However the quantum effects in the outgoing light fields are strongly reduced due to the large mismatch in the coupling of the signal and idler polaritons to the external photons. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Summary form only given. The nonlinear optical response of semiconductor microcavities in the nonperturbative regime has been the subject of many recent experiments. Contrary to clear demonstrations of the quantized nature of the vacuum-field Rabi splitting of a single atom, most of the experiments on semi-conductor microcavities could be explained in terms of a classical light field. Only recently, quantized light field effects have been reported in a coherent control experiment (Lee et al, 1999) and theoretically investigated in secondary emission (Kira et al, 1999). Here, results are presented that display a pronounced third transmission maximum lying energetically between the two normal modes. The third peak can be observed in resonant femtosecond single-beam as well as picosecond pump-probe experiments under various excitation conditions.
Nonlinear optical phenomena in both semiconductor microcavities and sodium vapor are investigated. Systems displaying atomic and excitonic coupling are studied in detail in order to unravel underlying physical principles. Possible applications for these systems are evaluated where appropriate. Normal-mode coupling (NMC) in a semiconductor microcavity is achieved when a narrow-linewidth quantum well exciton resonance is coincident with the cavity mode of a high-finesse microcavity. This interaction leads to a double-peaked spectrum in either transmission, reflection, or photoluminescence (PL). The high-quality microcavities studied here at liquid-Helium temperatures reveal intensity dependent behavior that has not previously been observed. Nonlinear saturation of the exciton leads to a spectral broadening of the excitonic absorption without a significant loss in oscillator strength. This results in a reduction of the two transmission peaks with almost no change in the splitting between the peaks. Such behavior is easily explained using phenomenological nonlinear dispersion theory. In this nonlinear regime, the luminescence from the microcavity shows a gradual transition from the nonperturbative regime of NMC to lasing with increasing excitation. The observed behavior is explained by density-dependent changes in both the transmission of the microcavity and the bare-exciton emission, rather than a boson-condensation of excitons which has been previously proposed. An intermediate-finesse microcavity also modifies the emission distribution from a bulk-semiconductor at room temperature. Angularly resolved emission spectra and quantum efficiency measurements show the PL is strongly dependent on the reflectivity of the microcavity. Unfortunately, the enhancement in the decay rate of excitons due to high-reflectivity mirrors seen previously by our group does not result in an increased quantum efficiency. High-gain optical-wavefront amplification in atomic sodium vapor is demonstrated via both the three-photon effect and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). In both cases, single-pass weak-field gain of nearly 400 is achieved with only 800 mW of pump power near 589 nm. In the case of SRS, phase preservation of the amplified wavefront, which is necessary in adaptive imaging applications, is also demonstrated.