Control of polariton scattering in resonant-tunneling double-quantum-well semiconductor microcavities

Abstract

Electronic control of ultrafast optical amplification is achieved in specially designed semiconductor microcavities with double quantum well. The gain from parametric scattering of polaritons is selectively quenched by tuning the intracavity electric field to turn on and off interwell resonant tunneling. A $>90\mathrm{%}$ reduction in optical gain is observed with only 100 mV change in applied bias. The strong exciton-photon coupling regime leads here to competition between the rate of Rabi coupling and of electronic tunneling between adjacent quantum wells.