Nonlinear Optics in Photonic Srystal Microcavities

王筠 Wang Yun, 冯国强 Feng Guoqiang, 刘丹 Liu Dan +4 more

Iacopo Carusotto, Giuseppe Carlo La Rocca

Ze Cheng

Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of dressed photons in a Kerr nonlinear optical microcavity is investigated. Our experimental scheme is based on an optical microcavity filled with a Kerr nonlinear nonpolar crystal. The pump photons interact with the Raman phonons in the crystal and hence are converted into new quasiparticles, which we refer to as dressed photons. A dressed photon is a photon dressed with a cloud of virtual transverse-optical phonons. The first main finding is that two-dimensional (2D) dressed photons have an increased inert mass. The second main finding is that the lower cutoff frequency of a nonlinear optical microcavity becomes larger. The third main finding is that the incident laser intensity is a moderate laser intensity ([Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text] W/cm2). The fourth main finding is that the critical optical power of a nonlinear optical microcavity is increased. The fifth main finding is that the radiation emitted by 2D dressed photons has an ultrahigh intensity.

Steven C. Hill

Shaohui Li, Xuhong Cai

We present a photonic crystal configuration consisting of a waveguide directly coupled to two microcavities with instantaneous Kerr nonlinearity. We prove that such a configuration can function as a high contrast all optical switch with properly misaligning the resonant frequencies of the constitutional photonic crystal microcavities.

M. Rüfenacht

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.