Multi-stability and polariton solitons in microcavity wires

Abstract

Nonlinear polaritons in microcavity wires are demonstrated to exhibit multi-stable behavior and rich dynamics, including filamentation and soliton formation. We find that the multi-stability originates from co-existence of different transverse cavity modes. Modulational stability and conditions for multi-mode polariton solitons are studied. Soliton propagation in tilted, relative to the pump momentum, microcavity wires is demonstrated, and a critical tilt angle for the soliton propagation is found.

Spatial multistability induced by cross interactions of confined polariton modes

“…The identical values of g 22 and g 33 are a direct consequence of the similar spatial profile of modes E 2 and E 3 since these modes originate from the same state (n = 1,m = 1).…”

“…The sample studied was grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and consists of a 21 (22) top (bottom) GaAs/AlAs distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) λ microcavity with a single In 0.04 Ga 0.96 As QW placed at the antinode of the electromagnetic field inside the cavity spacer with a vacuum Rabi splitting of 0 = 3.5 meV [11]. The spacer has been chemically etched before the overgrowth of the top DBR to create circular mesas of 6 nm in height and 3 to 20 μm in diameter that act as a confinement potential (9 meV) for light [37].…”

“…Finally, the simulation clearly shows that both E 2 and E 3 jump at the second upper threshold and that E 2 becomes the dominant one, as observed in the experiment. In the simulation, the exciton-exciton self-interaction terms are equal (g 22 = g 33 ), which implies that the only way for the two states to have their upward threshold at the same power is through the cross interaction g 23 ; for this specific simulation, it is equal to 0.22g 22 . Leaving g 23 to zero would create distinct thresholds for E 2 and E 3 .…”

“…The bistability and spinor multistability of a microcavity polariton have been extensively studied both theoretically [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] and experimentally [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. It relies on exciting the microcavity using a laser blue detuned with respect to the lower polariton branch (LP) and to measure the transmitted laser intensity.…”

Coupled spatial multimode solitons in microcavity wires

“…In a recent work 18 we found composite 'multi-mode' polariton soliton solutions in 1D microcavity wires that result from the superposition of the fundamental and multiple higher-order co-existing transverse cavity modes. Most recently, similar spatial multi-stability behaviour has been experimentally observed in laterally confined microcavity exciton-polaritons 28 .…”