Polariton Nonlinear Dynamics: Theory and Experiments

Abstract

The results of experimental studies are presented of the polariton system in a semiconductor microcavity excited resonantly at various wave vectors by ns-long pulse laser with various light polarizations along with a theoretical description of the nonlinear effects in the polariton system. The interplay between the parametric scattering and self-instability of the driven mode results in a rich variety of scattering scenarios (or cavity dynamics) sensitive to variation of both the intensity and polarization state of the external pump. The observed instabilities and hysteresis effects in a scalar polariton system excited with circularly polarized pulses can be qualitatively reproduced within the semiclassical model of dynamically self-organized optical parametric oscillator (OPO), based on the resonant approximation of cavity electrodynamics and the Ginzburg-Landau-Gross-Pitaevskii-type equation for coherent excitonic interband polarization. However, this model fails to explain the polarization instabilities in the effectively spinor system excited with elliptically polarized pulses. The dynamics of such a system is strongly affected by the long-lived exciton reservoir (excited due to polariton scattering) which brings about additional blueshift of both components of bright excitons and results in the qualitative changes in the development of the polarization instabilities in the driven mode and in the OPO signal. Those transitions are phenomenologically introduced into the modified semiclassical model. In spite of some limitations, this model provides a self-consistent approach to description of intracavity field dynamics under both pulse and continuous wave excitation conditions and gives a good qualitative description of the observed polarization instabilities and hysteresis effects in the dynamics of both the driven mode and OPO signal.KeywordsOptical Parametric OscillatorDrive ModeParametric ScatteringPolarization InstabilityPolariton ModeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.