Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Physical Review Letters

Dominant Effect of Polariton-Polariton Interactions on the Coherence of the Microcavity Optical Parametric Oscillator

Dmitry N. Krizhanovskii, D. Sanvitto, A. P. D. Love, Maurice S. Skolnick, David M. Whittaker, J.S. Roberts

Published Aug 31, 2006• 50 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The importance of interaction effects in determining the temporal coherence of spectrally and spatially isolated single modes of the microcavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is demonstrated. As a function of macroscopic occupancy, the coherence time (tau c) first increases linearly and then exhibits saturation behavior, reaching maximum values of up to 500 ps. Good agreement is found with a model including fluctuations in polariton number and polariton-polariton interactions between the OPO states. tau c is a property of the coupled OPO system, a result confirmed by the finding of equal coherence times for signal and idler, even though the idler is subject to strong additional scattering.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.97.097402

Related papers

Spatial properties and coherence of the high density phase in the microcavity optical parametric oscillator

Maurice S. Skolnick, D. Sanvitto, Dmitry N. Krizhanovskii +3 more

Abstract Recent work on imaging of the quantum fluid in the microcavity optical parametric oscillator is described. It is shown that the high density phase has an intrinsic, spatially non‐uniform distribution arising from quasi‐particle interactions which blue shift the dispersion curve, and in plane fluctuations in the photonic potential of the microcavity. Isolation of single modes using spectral and spatial resolution enables the coherence of the OPO to be studied. Particle‐particle interactions are shown to play a key role in determining the temporal coherence. The behaviour of the coherence of the macroscopically occupied phase is shown to contrast strongly with that of a non‐interacting system. Evidence for signal‐idler energy and phase correlations is obtained. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

physica status solidi (b)•Aug 25, 2006•1 citation

Build up of off-diagonal long-range order in microcavity exciton-polaritons across the parametric threshold

R. Spano, Jorge Cuadra, C A Lingg +6 more

We report an experimental study of the spontaneous spatial and temporal coherence of polariton condensates generated in the optical parametric oscillator configuration, below and at the parametric threshold, and as a function of condensate area. Above the threshold we obtain very long coherence times (up to 3 ns) and a spatial coherence extending over the entire condensate (40 μm). The very long coherence time and its dependence on condensate area and pump power reflect the suppression of polariton-polariton interactions by an effect equivalent to motional narrowing.

arXiv:1111.4894•Optics Express•Apr 25, 2013•12 citations

Parametric oscillation in semiconductor microcavities: nonlinear and quantum effects

Jean‐Philippe Karr, A. Baas, Marco Romanelli +2 more

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)

physica status solidi (a)•Jan 21, 2005•1 citation

Coherence properties of the microcavity polariton condensate

David M. Whittaker, P. R. Eastham

A theoretical model is presented which explains the dominant decoherence process in a microcavity polariton condensate. The mechanism which is invoked is the effect of self-phase modulation, whereby interactions transform polariton number fluctuations into random energy variations. The model shows that the phase coherence decay, g (1) (τ), has a Kubo form, which can be Gaussian or exponential, depending on whether the number fluctuations are slow or fast. This fluctuation rate also determines the decay time of the intensity correlation function, g (2) (τ), so it can be directly determined experimentally. The model explains recent experimental measurements of a relatively fast Gaussian decay for g (1) (τ), but also predicts a regime, further above threshold, where the decay is much slower.

arXiv:0811.4333•Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Jul 1, 2009•48 citations

Coherence properties of exciton polariton OPO condensates in one and two dimensions

R Spano, Jorge Cuadra, G. Tosi +8 more

We give an overview of the coherence properties of exciton-polariton condensates generated by optical parametric scattering.Different aspects of the first-order coherence (g (1) ) have been investigated.The spatial coherence extension of a two-dimensional (2D) polariton system, below and at the parametric threshold, demonstrates the development of a constant phase coherence over the entire condensate, once the condensate phase transition takes place.The effect on coherence of the photonic versus excitonic nature of the condensates is also examined.The coherence of a quasi-1D trap, composed of a line defect, is studied, showing the detrimental effect of reduced dimensionality on the establishment of the long range order.In addition, the temporal coherence decay, g (1) (τ ), reveals a fast decay in contrast with the 2D case.The situation of a quasi-1D condensate coexisting with a 2D one is also presented.

New Journal of Physics•Jul 20, 2012•21 citations

Correlated photons from microcavity polariton parametric scattering

M. Sassermann, Z. Voros, Gregor Weihs +1 more

Summary form only given. Semiconductor microcavities can be engineered to produce strong coupling between photons and quantum well excitons leading to the formation of new eigenstates called polaritons. Due to their peculiar dispersion, enabling non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation [1], and their straightforward experimental accessibility, microcavity polaritons have gained considerable interest in recent years. Polariton states can be selectively populated by choosing the excitation angle and the wavelength of the excitation laser. After a lifetime of a few picoseconds the polariton decays and a photon is emitted from the cavity, carrying the complete information on the underlying polariton state. Several theoretical works [2-3] suggest that polariton-polariton interactions can be a source of non-classical photon correlations, producing photon pairs that are entangled in either the energy, the polarization, or the momentum degree of freedom. One appeal of such a system is that many parameters such as the polariton-polariton interaction strength are tunable [4] and multipartite entangled states can be created in a single device [5]. However, due to the lack of high-quality samples, experimental realisations of these schemes have been elusive so far. In this contribution, we will discuss some of our experimental work on the statistics of polariton-polariton parametric scattering. Excited polaritons can scatter in a four-wave mixing process into signal and idler states lying on a figure-eight shaped curve in k-space, where phase-matching is fulfilled. We make use of a sample with ultra narrow exciton resonances, which allows for the generation and detection of correlated light. We present our measurements of the second order correlation functions using time-correlated photon counting. We discuss in detail, how polariton quantum correlations depend on a number of experimental parameters, such as phase space location and excitation density and find that the results can be understood in the framework of the well known Bogoliubov theory for 2D Bose gases utilised for microcavity polaritons [6]. We find bunching below the parametric threshold and a slow buildup of coherence above the threshold similar to the quantum statistics of a non-degenerate optical parametric oscillator, which is well known for its nonclassical properties [7]. We discuss in particular the influence of strong background processes on the observed photon statistics.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)•Jun 1, 2017•0 citations
The importance of interaction effects in determining the temporal coherence of spectrally and spatially isolated single modes of the microcavity optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is demonstrated. As a function of macroscopic occupancy, the coherence time (tau c) first increases linearly and then exhibits saturation behavior, reaching maximum values of up to 500 ps. Good agreement is found with a model including fluctuations in polariton number and polariton-polariton interactions between the OPO states. tau c is a property of the coupled OPO system, a result confirmed by the finding of equal coherence times for signal and idler, even though the idler is subject to strong additional scattering.
Abstract Recent work on imaging of the quantum fluid in the microcavity optical parametric oscillator is described. It is shown that the high density phase has an intrinsic, spatially non‐uniform distribution arising from quasi‐particle interactions which blue shift the dispersion curve, and in plane fluctuations in the photonic potential of the microcavity. Isolation of single modes using spectral and spatial resolution enables the coherence of the OPO to be studied. Particle‐particle interactions are shown to play a key role in determining the temporal coherence. The behaviour of the coherence of the macroscopically occupied phase is shown to contrast strongly with that of a non‐interacting system. Evidence for signal‐idler energy and phase correlations is obtained. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
We report an experimental study of the spontaneous spatial and temporal coherence of polariton condensates generated in the optical parametric oscillator configuration, below and at the parametric threshold, and as a function of condensate area. Above the threshold we obtain very long coherence times (up to 3 ns) and a spatial coherence extending over the entire condensate (40 μm). The very long coherence time and its dependence on condensate area and pump power reflect the suppression of polariton-polariton interactions by an effect equivalent to motional narrowing.
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)
A theoretical model is presented which explains the dominant decoherence process in a microcavity polariton condensate. The mechanism which is invoked is the effect of self-phase modulation, whereby interactions transform polariton number fluctuations into random energy variations. The model shows that the phase coherence decay, g (1) (τ), has a Kubo form, which can be Gaussian or exponential, depending on whether the number fluctuations are slow or fast. This fluctuation rate also determines the decay time of the intensity correlation function, g (2) (τ), so it can be directly determined experimentally. The model explains recent experimental measurements of a relatively fast Gaussian decay for g (1) (τ), but also predicts a regime, further above threshold, where the decay is much slower.
We give an overview of the coherence properties of exciton-polariton condensates generated by optical parametric scattering.Different aspects of the first-order coherence (g (1) ) have been investigated.The spatial coherence extension of a two-dimensional (2D) polariton system, below and at the parametric threshold, demonstrates the development of a constant phase coherence over the entire condensate, once the condensate phase transition takes place.The effect on coherence of the photonic versus excitonic nature of the condensates is also examined.The coherence of a quasi-1D trap, composed of a line defect, is studied, showing the detrimental effect of reduced dimensionality on the establishment of the long range order.In addition, the temporal coherence decay, g (1) (τ ), reveals a fast decay in contrast with the 2D case.The situation of a quasi-1D condensate coexisting with a 2D one is also presented.
Summary form only given. Semiconductor microcavities can be engineered to produce strong coupling between photons and quantum well excitons leading to the formation of new eigenstates called polaritons. Due to their peculiar dispersion, enabling non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation [1], and their straightforward experimental accessibility, microcavity polaritons have gained considerable interest in recent years. Polariton states can be selectively populated by choosing the excitation angle and the wavelength of the excitation laser. After a lifetime of a few picoseconds the polariton decays and a photon is emitted from the cavity, carrying the complete information on the underlying polariton state. Several theoretical works [2-3] suggest that polariton-polariton interactions can be a source of non-classical photon correlations, producing photon pairs that are entangled in either the energy, the polarization, or the momentum degree of freedom. One appeal of such a system is that many parameters such as the polariton-polariton interaction strength are tunable [4] and multipartite entangled states can be created in a single device [5]. However, due to the lack of high-quality samples, experimental realisations of these schemes have been elusive so far. In this contribution, we will discuss some of our experimental work on the statistics of polariton-polariton parametric scattering. Excited polaritons can scatter in a four-wave mixing process into signal and idler states lying on a figure-eight shaped curve in k-space, where phase-matching is fulfilled. We make use of a sample with ultra narrow exciton resonances, which allows for the generation and detection of correlated light. We present our measurements of the second order correlation functions using time-correlated photon counting. We discuss in detail, how polariton quantum correlations depend on a number of experimental parameters, such as phase space location and excitation density and find that the results can be understood in the framework of the well known Bogoliubov theory for 2D Bose gases utilised for microcavity polaritons [6]. We find bunching below the parametric threshold and a slow buildup of coherence above the threshold similar to the quantum statistics of a non-degenerate optical parametric oscillator, which is well known for its nonclassical properties [7]. We discuss in particular the influence of strong background processes on the observed photon statistics.