Influence of the mirrors on the strong coupling regime in planar GaN microcavities

Abstract

The optical properties of bulk $\ensuremath{\lambda}∕2$ GaN microcavities working in the strong light-matter coupling regime are investigated by using angle-dependent reflectivity and photoluminescence at 5 and $300\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. The structures have an ${\mathrm{Al}}_{0.2}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{0.8}\mathrm{N}∕\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{N}$ distributed Bragg reflector as the bottom mirror and either an aluminum mirror or a dielectric Bragg mirror as the top one. First, the influence of the number of pairs of the bottom mirror on the Rabi splitting is studied. The increase in the mirror penetration depth is correlated with a reduction of the Rabi splitting. Second, the emission of the lower polariton branch is observed at low temperature in a microcavity containing two Bragg mirrors and exibiting a quality factor of 190. Our simulations using the transfer-matrix formalism, taking into account the real structure of the samples investigated, are in good agreement with experimental results.