Demonstration of confined optical field effect in a vertical microcavity by examining the low temperature photon-exciton interaction in two kinds of quantum wells

Abstract

We report new results on a photon-exciton interaction in a λ cavity having two kinds of quantum wells (QWs) with the thickness of 62 and 90 Å which are sited at the antinode and two nodes of the standing wave, respectively. By measuring the reflectivity spectrum of the quantum microcavity, mode splitting (two dips) is observed when the photons in the cavity are resonant with the excitons of 62 Å QWs at 14 K. However, no mode splitting (one dip) is observed when the microcavity is tuned to the quantized energy of the excitons arising from the 90 Å QWs. The reason is the difference of the coupled interaction between photons and excitons due to the standing wave distribution of the optical field in the microcavity. The above results clearly demonstrate the controllability of quantum electrodynamics effects due to the confined optical mode (i.e., the standing wave) in a high-Q microcavity.