Ultrafast optical bleaching of intersubband cavity polaritons

Zanotto, Simone; Degl’Innocenti, Riccardo; Xu, Jianhe; Sorba, L.; Tredicucci, Alessandro; Biasiol, G.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.86.201302

Cited by 24 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…It is not possible with a total internal reflection cavity geometry to obtain an energy minimum at very low in-plane wavevector (k ) values, where the density of states could favor a high bosonic population and in principle final state stimulation 10,13 . One dimensional surface plasmon photonic crystal membranes have been successfully used to obtain ISB polaritons at low k , but this geometry is unfortunately incompatible with electrical injection 14 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Mid-infrared intersubband polaritons in dispersive metal-insulator-metal resonators

Manceau¹,

Zanotto

Ongarello³

et al. 2014

Applied Physics Letters

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We demonstrate room-temperature strong-coupling between a mid-infrared (λ=9.9 µm) intersubband transition and the fundamental cavity mode of a metal-insulator-metal resonator. Patterning of the resonator surface enables surface-coupling of the radiation and introduces an energy dispersion which can be probed with angle-resolved reflectivity. In particular, the polaritonic dispersion presents an accessible energy minimum at k=0 where potentially polaritons can accumulate. We also show that it is possible to maximize the coupling of photons into the polaritonic states andsimultaneously -to engineer the position of the minimum Rabi splitting at a desired value of the in-plane wavevector. This can be precisely accomplished via a simple post-processing technique. The results are confirmed using the temporal coupled mode theory formalism and their significance in the context of the concept of strong critical coupling is highlighted.Light emitting devices based on microcavity polaritons have experienced a tremendous development in the last two decades with the successful demonstration of electroluminescent diodes and optically pumped "bosonic lasers" operating at near-infrared wavelengths 1,2 . The extension of such devices to mid-infrared (mid-IR) and Terahertz (THz) wavelengths (λ > 10µm) has been recently explored, taking advantage of the design flexibility offered by intersubband (ISB) transitions in semiconductor quantum wells. The strong coupling between an ISB transition (or more precisely an ISB plasmon 3 ) and a microcavity photonic mode was first demonstrated in the mid-IR 4 and then in the THz range 5 . Devices based on microcavity ISB polaritons hold great potential since in the strong-coupling regime a periodic energy exchange between the light and matter degrees of freedom takes place on an ultrafast time scale (the Rabi oscillation time). On one hand, ISB polaritons can in principle exhibit radiatiave decay times faster than a bare ISB transition. This effect could yield more efficient electroluminescent devices at such wavelengths 6,7 . On the other hand, due to their bosonic nature, ISB polaritons are subject to final state stimulation, as it is also the case for their excitonic counterparts, and they can potentially lead to the demonstration of bosonic mid-IR or THz lasers 8-10 , which would not rely on population inversion. Quantum cascade structures embedded in microcavities have been used to demonstrate electrically pumped light emitting polaritonic devices in the mid-IR 11 . Furthermore, phonon-assisted polariton scattering processes have been observed 12 . This constitutes an encouraging step towards the development of efficient electroluminescent polaritonic devices, since it is possible to rely on a proven scattering process.However, in the polaritonic light emitting devices (LED) demonstrated to date a key parameter is missing. It is not possible with a total internal reflection cavity geometry to obtain an energy minimum at very low in-plane wavevector (k ) values, where the density of states...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mid-infrared intersubband polaritons in dispersive metal-insulator-metal resonators

Manceau¹,

Zanotto

Ongarello³

et al. 2014

Applied Physics Letters

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“…They consist of a semiconductor membrane patterned with gold stripes, following a supercell scheme where N Bragg identical stripes (Bragg mirror) are interleaved with a larger stripe (defect). This metallodielectric photonic crystal resonator, whose fabrication procedure is described elsewhere 19 , features a resonance whose field distribution has a maximum below the defect stripe. As reported in Ref.…”

Section: Linear Optical Properties Of Defect-mode Intersubband Pomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the RCWA modelling, the dependence A(∆n) occurs via the effective dielectric function 19 . Finally, the constraints ∆n = n 1 − n 2 and n 1 + n 2 = n (0) , where n (0) is the static charge density provided by the doping, allows to solve Eq.…”

Section: Non-linear Optical Properties Of Defect-mode Intersubbamentioning

confidence: 99%

Saturation and bistability of defect-mode intersubband polaritons

et al. 2015

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In this article we report about linear and nonlinear optical properties of intersubband cavity polariton samples, where the resonant photonic mode is a defect state in a metallo-dielectric photonic crystal slab. By tuning a single geometric parameter of the resonator, the cavity Q-factor can reach values as large as 85, with a consequent large cooperativity for the light-matter interaction. We show that a device featuring large cooperativity leads to sharp saturation, or even bistability, of the polariton states. This nonlinear dynamics occurs at the crossover between the weak and the strong coupling regimes, where the weak critical coupling concept plays a fundamental role.

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“…16, where the fabrication details can also be retrieved. Since the heterostructure is here undoped, its role boils down to an effective dielectric of permittivity ε D = 10.05.…”

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confidence: 99%

Photonic bands and defect modes in metallo-dielectric photonic crystal slabs

et al. 2014

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Photonic components based on structured metallic elements show great potential for device applications where field enhancement and confinement of the radiation on a subwavelength scale is required. In this paper we report a detailed study of a prototypical metallo-dielectric photonic structure, where features well known in the world of dielectric photonic crystals, like band gaps and defect modes, are exported to the metallic counterpart, with interesting applications to infrared science and technology, as for instance in quantum well infrared photodetectors, narrow-band spectral filters, and tailorable thermal emitters.The idea of reproducing the naturally occurring periodic arrangement of atoms in solid crystals by settling ordered arrays of scattering elements on the light wavelength scale gave origin to the extremely fruitful concept of photonic crystal [1]. Despite the full maturity of this research field, new possibilities keep emerging, regarding the ability of spatially confining otherwise freely propagating photons [2,3]. In original proposals and traditional implementations, photonic crystals relied on dielectric media, mainly owing to the natural interconnection with semiconductor science and technology. However, moving to metallic photonic structures, new physics was developed and technological milestones were set. Starting from the discovery of extraordinary transmission[4], researchers explored the world of periodic arrangements of metallic elements, where the concepts of metamaterials and plasmonics naturally appear.Hybrid metallo-dielectric photonic devices attract attention because the interface between those two classes of materials naturally supports an intense local electric field. This is of clear relevance when the goal is to enhance non-linear effects [5], but also in the realm of linear physics, where the existence of a maximum of the field close to an interface enables the technology for a whole class of photonic devices, like terahertz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). It is indeed in connection with QCLs and other intersubband devices that certain concepts, like distributed feedback lasers and photonic crystal resonators, have been exported to metallo-dielectric structures [6][7][8].In this paper we theoretically and experimentally analyze a simple one-dimensional metallo-dielectric photonic slab structure, where two key features of photonic crystals -band gap and defect modes -clearly appear. The defect mode is a high Q-factor resonance, whose linewidth and angular acceptance can be tuned at will within wide ranges. The observed phenomenology is general and can be extrapolated to devices working in different wavelength ranges [9,10]; furthermore, small modifications to the studied prototypical passive component could directly lead to operating devices for the infrared * simone.zanotto@sns.it spectral range. Thanks to the anticipated resonance tunability, metallo-dielectric photonic crystal defects can be very useful for the development of guided-mode resonance filters (GMRF) [11,12] and ...

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Ultrafast optical bleaching of intersubband cavity polaritons

Cited by 24 publications

References 16 publications

Mid-infrared intersubband polaritons in dispersive metal-insulator-metal resonators

Mid-infrared intersubband polaritons in dispersive metal-insulator-metal resonators

Saturation and bistability of defect-mode intersubband polaritons

Photonic bands and defect modes in metallo-dielectric photonic crystal slabs

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