Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity
We study a “strongly coupled” (SC) polariton system formed between the atomlike intersubband transitions in a semiconductor nanostructure and the terahertz optical modes that are localized at the edges of a gold aperture. The polaritons can be excited optically, by incoherent excitation with band-ga...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Physical Society
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60858 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1982-4053 |
| _version_ | 1826202444093194240 |
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| author | Williams, Benjamin S. Hu, Qing Gambari, Johannes Fernandez-Dominguez, Antonio I. Maier, Stefan A. Kumar, Sushil Reno, John L. Phillips, Chris C. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Williams, Benjamin S. Hu, Qing Gambari, Johannes Fernandez-Dominguez, Antonio I. Maier, Stefan A. Kumar, Sushil Reno, John L. Phillips, Chris C. |
| author_sort | Williams, Benjamin S. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We study a “strongly coupled” (SC) polariton system formed between the atomlike intersubband transitions in a semiconductor nanostructure and the terahertz optical modes that are localized at the edges of a gold aperture. The polaritons can be excited optically, by incoherent excitation with band-gap radiation, and we find that they also coherently scatter the same input laser, to give strikingly sharp “sideband” (SB) spectral peaks, in the backscattered spectrum. The SB intensity is a sensitive track of the polariton density and they can be detected down to a quantum noise floor that is more than 2500 times lower than the excitation thresholds of comparable quantum cascade laser diodes. Compared with other coherent scattering mechanisms, higher-order SB scattering events are readily observable, and we speculate that if suitably optimized, the effect may find utility in a passive component capable of all-optical wavelength shifting for telecommunications systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:07:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/60858 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:07:33Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/608582022-10-01T08:21:14Z Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity Williams, Benjamin S. Hu, Qing Gambari, Johannes Fernandez-Dominguez, Antonio I. Maier, Stefan A. Kumar, Sushil Reno, John L. Phillips, Chris C. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics Hu, Qing Williams, Benjamin S. Hu, Qing Kumar, Sushil We study a “strongly coupled” (SC) polariton system formed between the atomlike intersubband transitions in a semiconductor nanostructure and the terahertz optical modes that are localized at the edges of a gold aperture. The polaritons can be excited optically, by incoherent excitation with band-gap radiation, and we find that they also coherently scatter the same input laser, to give strikingly sharp “sideband” (SB) spectral peaks, in the backscattered spectrum. The SB intensity is a sensitive track of the polariton density and they can be detected down to a quantum noise floor that is more than 2500 times lower than the excitation thresholds of comparable quantum cascade laser diodes. Compared with other coherent scattering mechanisms, higher-order SB scattering events are readily observable, and we speculate that if suitably optimized, the effect may find utility in a passive component capable of all-optical wavelength shifting for telecommunications systems. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research 2011-01-28T20:10:46Z 2011-01-28T20:10:46Z 2010-09 2010-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1098-0121 1550-235X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60858 Gambari, Johannes et al. “Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity.” Physical Review B 82.12 (2010): 121303. © 2010 The American Physical Society. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1982-4053 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.121303 Physical Review B Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society APS |
| spellingShingle | Williams, Benjamin S. Hu, Qing Gambari, Johannes Fernandez-Dominguez, Antonio I. Maier, Stefan A. Kumar, Sushil Reno, John L. Phillips, Chris C. Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity |
| title | Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity |
| title_full | Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity |
| title_fullStr | Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity |
| title_short | Thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity |
| title_sort | thresholdless coherent light scattering from subband polaritons in a strongly coupled microcavity |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60858 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1982-4053 |
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