A polariton Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state in a semiconductor microcavity is an example of symmetry-broken states in open systems. Fluctuations of the order parameter are an important tool to characterize such a state. With the condensate formed by composite particles, the set of zero-momentum fluctuations spans an infinite-dimensional electron-hole mode subspace. We show that collective fluctuation modes with orbital angular momentum different from that of the order parameter can be obtained with terahertz radiation, and that a physical manifestation of such modes, which are not Higgs modes, can be terahertz gain.
Terahertz emission between exciton-polariton branches in semiconductor microcavities is expected to be strongly stimulated in the polariton laser regime, due to the high density of particles in the lower state (final state stimulation effect). However, non-radiative scattering processes depopulate the upper state and greatly hinder the efficiency of such terahertz sources. In this work, we suggest a new scheme using multiple microcavities and exploiting the transition between two interband polariton branches located below the exciton level. We compare the non-radiative processes loss rates in …
We use linear response theory in order to compute the light absorption spectrum, in the terahertz band, of a polariton system composed by excitons in a quantum dot very strongly coupled to the lowest photon mode of a thin micropillar. In a thermalized (Bose condensed) system at low temperatures, the spectral function shows a peak (GDR) associated to a 1s - 2p exciton transition, enhanced by polariton effects. On the other hand, in a non-equilibrium system absorption is peaked at low energies. Thus, a measurement of terahertz absorption could give an indication of the degree of thermalization i…
We show that planar semiconductor microcavities in the strong coupling regime can be used as sources of stimulated terahertz (THz) radiation. Emitted THz photons would have a frequency of the spliting of the cavity polariton modes. The optical transition between upper and lower polariton branches is allowed due to mixing of the upper polariton state with one of excited exciton states. This transition is stimulated in the polariton laser regime.
Electric dipole transitions between different cavity polariton branches or between dressed atomic states with the same excitation number are strictly forbidden in centro-symmetric systems. For doped quantum wells in semiconductor microcavities, the strong coupling between an intersubband transition in the conduction band and a cavity mode produces two branches of intersubband cavity polaritons, whose normal-mode energy splitting is tunable and can be in the terahertz region. Here, we show that, by using asymmetric quantum wells, it is possible to have allowed dipolar transitions between differ…
Interactions of few-cycle terahertz pulses with the induced optical polarization in a quantum-well microcavity reveal that the lower and higher exciton-polariton modes together with the optically forbidden 2p-exciton state form a unique Λ-type three-level system. Pronounced nonlinearities are observed via time-resolved strong-terahertz and weak-optical excitation spectroscopy and explained with a fully microscopic theory. The results show that the terahertz pulses strongly couple the exciton-polariton states to the 2p-exciton state while no resonant transition between the two polariton levels …
We consider the nonlinear terahertz emission by the system of cavity polaritons in the regime of polariton lasing. To account for the quantum nature of terahertz-polariton coupling we use the Lindblad master equation approach and demonstrate that quantum microcavities reveal rich variety of the nonlinear phenomena in terahertz range, including bistability, short THz pulse generation and THz switching.
Coherent sub-THz phonons incident on a gold grating that is deposited on a dielectric substrate undergo diffraction and thereby induce an alteration of the surface plasmon-polariton resonance. This results in efficient high-frequency modulation (up to 110 GHz) of the structure's reflectivity for visible light in the vicinity of the plasmon-polariton resonance. High modulation efficiency is achieved by designing a periodic nanostructure which provides both plasmon-polariton and phonon resonances. Our theoretical analysis shows that the dynamical alteration of the plasmon-polariton resonance is …
Nonlinear Terahertz Electroluminescence from Dirac Landau Polaritons
Université de Montpellier（蒙彼利埃大学）；Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C)（夏尔·库隆实验室）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses（强磁场国家实验室）；UGA（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学）；UPS（图卢兹第三大学）；INSA（国立应用科学学院）；EMFL（欧洲磁力与低温设施）；CEA（法国原子能和替代能源委员会）；LETI（技术研究与集成系统实验室）；MINATEC Campus（微电子技术中心园区）；DOPT（器件物理与技术部门）；Institute for Physics of Microstructures of the Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院微结构物理研究所）；Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod（下诺夫哥罗德罗巴切夫斯基国立大学）；Ioffe Institute（约费研究所）；A.V. Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院西伯利亚分院A.V. 日瓦诺夫半导体物理研究所）；Novosibirsk State University（新西伯利亚国立大学）；Tomsk State University（托木斯克国立大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques（材料与量子现象实验室）
Depending on the relative rates of coupling and dissipation, a light-matter coupled system is either in the weak- or strong-coupling regime. Here, we present a unique system where the coupling rate continuously increases with an externally applied magnetic field while the dissipation rate remains constant, allowing us to monitor a weak-to-strong coupling transition as a function of magnetic field. We observed a Rabi splitting of a terahertz magnon mode in yttrium orthoferrite above a threshold magnetic field of ~14 T. Based on a microscopic theoretical model, we show that with increasing magne…
The current (voltage) responsivity of the superlattice-based diode detectors in the terahertz frequency band which includes the region of the polar optical phonon frequencies has been analyzed theoretically. Within the framework of the equivalent circuit approach an electro-dynamical model which allows one to analyze the responsivity taking into account the plasmon polariton excitation both in the substrate and in the contact layers of the diodes has been suggested. It has been shown that the presence of the plasmon polariton excitation gives rise to strong features in the frequency dependence…
The strong-coupling regime between an electronic transition and the photonic mode of a optical resonator manifests itself in the lifting of the degeneracy between the two modes and the creation of two polariton states with mixed optical and electronic character. This phenomenon has been studied in atoms, excitons in semiconductors and quantum electrodynamics circuits based on Josephson junctions. Recently, there is also strong interest to study similar effects using intersubband transitions in quantum wells in the terahertz, where the ultra strong coupling regime can be reached and new physica…
Semiconductor microcavities can exhibit various macroscopic quantum phenomena, including Bose-Einstein condensation of polaritons, Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) states of polaritons, and photon lasing (lasing with negligible Coulombic exciton effects). An important aspect of possible experimental identification of these states is a gap in the excitation spectrum (the BCS gap in the case of a polaritonic BCS state). Similar to the polaritonic BCS gap, a light-induced gap can exist in photon lasers. Although polaritonic BCS states have been observed on the basis of spectroscopy in the vicinity…
Strong coupling between magnon and electromagnetic wave can lead to the formation of a coupled spinphoton quasiparticle named as magnon-polariton. The phenomenon is well studied for ferromagnetic systems inside microwave cavities in recent years. However, formation of magnon-polariton is rarely seen for an antiferromagnet (AFM) because the strong coupling condition is not easily fulfilled. Here we present time-domain terahertz measurement on a multiferroic polar antiferromagnet Fe2Mo3O8. We find clearly beating between two modes at frequencies above and below the electric-active magnon frequen…
We analyze theoretically the spin dynamics of exciton-polaritons and photons during their Bloch oscillations in a one-dimensional microwire. The wire geometry induces an energy splitting between the longitudinal and transverse electric polarized eigenmodes. We show analytically that a synchronized regime between the Bloch oscillations in space and the precession of the pseudospin can be achieved. This synchronization results in the formation of a THz alternating spin current which can be extracted out of the confinement region by the Landau-Zener tunneling towards the second allowed miniband. …
Electromagnetic field confinement is crucial for nanophotonic technologies, since it allows for enhancing light-matter interactions, thus enabling light manipulation in deep sub-wavelength scales. In the terahertz (THz) spectral range, radiation confinement is conventionally achieved with specially designed metallic structures - such as antennas or nanoslits - with large footprints due to the rather long wavelengths of THz radiation. In this context, phonon polaritons - light coupled to lattice vibrations - in van der Waals (vdW) crystals have emerged as a promising solution for controlling li…
We theoretically investigate the application of topological plasmon polaritons (TPPs) to temperature sensing for the first time. Based on an analogy of the topological edge states in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, TPPs are realized in a one-dimensional intrinsic indium antimonide (InSb) microsphere chain. The existence of TPPs is demonstrated by analyzing the topology of the photonic band structures and the eigenmode distribution. By exploiting the temperature dependence of the permittivity of InSb in the terahertz range, the resonance frequency of the TPPs can be largely tuned by the tempera…
We report the first observation of stochastic resonance in confined exciton-polaritons. We evidence this phenomena by tracking the polaritons behavior through two stochastic resonance quantifiers namely the spectral magnification factor and the signal-to-noise ratio. The evolution of the stochastic resonance in function of the modulation amplitude of the periodic excitation signal is studied. Our experimental observations are well reproduced by numerical simulations performed in the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation under stochastic perturbation.
We study the loading of a nonequilibrium, dissipative system of composite bosons -- exciton polaritons -- into a one dimensional periodic lattice potential. Utilizing momentum resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy, we observe a transition between an incoherent Bose gas and a polariton condensate, which undergoes further transitions between different energy states in the band-gap spectrum of the periodic potential with increasing pumping power. We demonstrate controlled loading into distinct energy bands by modifying the size and shape of the excitation beam. The observed effects are comprehe…
The spectral characteristics of near-field thermal emission from nanoparticle arrays are explained by comparison to the dispersions for propagating modes. Using the coupled dipole model, we analytically calculate the spectral emission from single particles, chains, planes, and 3D arrays of SiO2 and SiC. We show that the differences in their spectra are due to the existence or absence of propagating surface phonon polariton modes and that the emission is dominated by these modes when they are present. This work paves the way for understanding and control of near-field radiation in nanofluids, n…
We propose a pump-probe set-up to analyse the properties of the collective excitation spectrum of a spinor polariton fluid. By using a linear response approximation scheme, we carry on a complete classification of all excitation spectra, as well as their intrinsic degree of polarisation, in terms of two experimentally tunable parameters only, the mean-field polarisation angle and a rescaled pump detuning. We evaluate the system response to the external probe, and show that the transmitted light can undergo a spin rotation along the dispersion for spectra that we classify as diffusive-like. We …
Strongly coupled ultracompressed self-cavity plasmon polaritons at millikelvin temperatures
Cornell University（康奈尔大学）；Kavli Institute for Nanoscience at Cornell（康奈尔纳米科学卡弗里研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Structure and Dynamics（马克斯·普朗克结构与动力学研究所）；National Institute for Materials Science（日本国立材料研究所）
The spectral and dispersive emission properties are analytically determined for the two-dimensional system of exciton-polaritons in microcavities excited by a resonant and coherent optical pump. New collective excitations result from the anomalous coupling between one generic polariton state and its idler, created by the scattering of two pumped polaritons. The corresponding parametric correlation is stimulated by the emitter and idler populations and drives very efficiently the luminescence. The intrinsic properties of the collective excitations determine a peculiar emission pattern.
The propagation of the collective surface plasmons, called plasmon-polaritons, in infinite equidistant ionic sphere chain has been analyzed. The ideal cancellation of irradiative losses of these ionic excitations in the chain is demonstrated by inclusion of appropriately retarded near-, medium and far-field components of dipole interaction between spheres in the chain. It is proved that the Lorentz friction losses in each sphere are completely compensated by the energy income from the rest of the chain for a wide sector of the plasmon-polariton wave vector domain. There is shown that the dampi…
We suggest an indirect method of detection of photons with zero projection of spin mediated by emission of terahertz photons. This terahertz source is based on a system of microcavity exciton polaritons in the regime of polariton BEC formation when the cavity photons acquire an effective mass being localised in the cavity and therefore receive the third spin degree of freedom (corresponding to the longitudinal polarization with chirality l = 0). The optical transitions can occur between two polariton ground states based on the light-hole and heavy-hole excitons, respectively, accompanied by th…
Collective (elementary) excitations of quantum bosonic condensates, including condensates of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities, are a sensitive probe of interparticle interactions. In anisotropic microcavities with momentum-dependent TE-TM splitting of the optical modes, the excitations dispersions are predicted to be strongly anisotropic, which is a consequence of the synthetic magnetic gauge field of the cavity, as well as the interplay between different interaction strengths for polaritons in the singlet and triplet spin configurations. Here, by directly measuring the disper…
We study macroscopically-aligned single-wall carbon nanotube arrays with uniform lengths via polarization-dependent terahertz and infrared transmission spectroscopy. Polarization anisotropy is extreme at frequencies less than $\sim$3 THz with no sign of attenuation when the polarization is perpendicular to the alignment direction. The attenuation for both parallel and perpendicular polarizations increases with increasing frequency, exhibiting a pronounced and broad peak around 10 THz in the parallel case. We model the electromagnetic response of the sample by taking into account both radiative…
We consider the possible phases of microcavity polaritons tuned near a bipolariton Feshbach resonance. We show that, as well as the regular polariton superfluid phase, a "molecular" superfluid exists, with (quasi-)long-range order only for pairs of polaritons. We describe the experimental signatures of this state. Using variational approaches we find the phase diagram (critical temperature, density and exciton-photon detuning). Unlike ultracold atoms, the molecular superfluid is not inherently unstable, and our phase diagram suggests it is attainable in current experiments.
We predict the formation and superfluidity of polaritons in an optical microcavity formed by excitons in gapped graphene embedded there and microcavity photons. The Rabi splitting related to the creation of an exciton in a graphene layer in the presence of the band gap is obtained. The analysis of collective excitations as well as the sound velocity is presented. We show that the superfluid density and temperature of the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition are decreasing functions of the energy gap.
Time resolved photoluminescence is a powerful technique to study the collective dynamics of excitons and polaritons in semiconductor nanostructures. We present a two excitation pulses technique to induce the ultrafast and controlled quenching of the exciton emission in a quantum well. The depth of the dip is given by the magnitude of the warming of the carriers induced by the arrival of a laser pulse when an exciton population is already present in the sample. We use this technique to study the relaxation mechanisms of polaritons in semiconductor microcavities, which are of great importance to…
Vertical cavity surface emitting terahertz lasers can be realized in conventional semiconductor microcavities with embedded quantum wells in the strong coupling regime. The cavity is to be pumped optically at half the frequency of the 2p exciton state. Once a threshold population of 2p excitons is achieved, a stimulated terahertz transition populates the lower exciton-polariton branch, and the cavity starts emitting laser light both in the optical and terahertz ranges. The lasing threshold is sensitive to the statistics of photons of the pumping light.
Ultrastrong magnon-photon coupling in superconductor/antiferromagnet/superconductor heterostructures at terahertz frequencies
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology（莫斯科物理技术学院）；School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学物理学院）；National Research University Higher School of Economics（国立研究型高等经济大学）
Collective Excitations and Stability of Nonequilibrium Polariton Supersolids
Abrikosov Center for Theoretical Physics, Moscow Center for Advanced Studies（莫斯科高级研究中心阿布里科索夫理论物理中心）；National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute)（莫斯科工程物理国立研究核大学）；Russian Quantum Center, Skolkovo IC（俄罗斯量子中心斯科尔科沃创新中心）
The canalization of terahertz surface plasmon polaritons using a modulated graphene monolayer is investigated for subwavelength imaging. An anisotropic surface conductivity formed by a set of parallel nanoribbons with alternating positive and negative imaginary conductivities is used to realize the canalization regime required for hyperlensing. The ribbons are narrow compared to the wavelength, and are created electronically by gating a graphene layer over a corrugated ground plane. Good quality canalization of surface plasmon polaritons is shown in the terahertz even in the presence of realis…
We present a gauge-invariant density matrix description of non-equilibrium superconductor (SC) states with spatial and temporal correlations driven by intense terahertz (THz) lightwaves. We derive superconductor Bloch--Maxwell equations of motion that extend Anderson pseudo-spin models to include the Cooper pair center-of-mass motion and electromagnetic propagation effects. We thus describe quantum control of dynamical phases, collective modes, quasi-particle coherence, and high nonlinearities during cycles of carrier wave oscillations, which relate to our recent experiments. Coherent photogen…
Nonlinear manipulation of nuclear and electron spins is the basis for all advanced methods in magnetic resonance including multidimensional nuclear magnetic and electron spin resonance spectroscopies, magnetic resonance imaging, and in recent years, quantum control over individual spins. The methodology is facilitated by the ease with which the regime of strong coupling can be reached between radiofrequency or microwave magnetic fields and nuclear or electron spins respectively, typified by sequences of magnetic pulses that control the magnetic moment directions. The capabilities meet a bottle…
We study the laser regime of terahertz (THz) emission from a semiconductor microcavity in the strong coupling regime, where optical transitions between upper and lower exciton-polariton modes are allowed due to the mixing of the upper mode with one of the dark exciton states. Using a system of master-Boltzmann equations describing both polariton modes and the THz mode, we calculate the first and second order coherences and the spectral shape of THz emission. This analysis shows that THz lasing in microcavities is possible provided that the system is embedded in a good THz cavity, that the opti…
We develop a kinetic theory of microcavity polaritons in presence of both Coulomb and polariton-phonon interaction, obeying particle number conservation. We study the growth of a macroscopic population of condensed particles in the lowest polariton state, under steady-state incoherent excitation of higher energy states. The collective excitation spectrum, resulting from the Coulomb Hamiltonian treated within the Hartree-Fock-Bogolubov framework, strongly influences the polariton condensation kinetics. In particular, for values of the excitation intensity above the condensation threshold, scatt…
Layered topological insulators, for example, Bi$_2$Se$_3$ are optically hyperbolic materials in a range of THz frequencies. Such materials possess deeply subdiffractional, highly directional collective modes: hyperbolic phonon-polaritons. In thin crystals the dispersion of such modes is split into discrete subbands and is strongly influenced by electron surface states. If the surface states are doped, then hybrid collective modes result from coupling of the phonon-polaritons with surface plasmons. The strength of the hybridization can be controlled by an external gate that varies the chemical …
The condition of phase matching prohibits the transfer of excitation from free-space photons to surface plasmon polaritons (SPP). We propose and analyze a scheme that excites an ensemble of emitters in a collective state, which is phase matched with the SPP by the optical pulses used for its preparation. By a collective enhancement the ensemble, hence, emits an SPP in a well defined direction. We demonstrate the scheme by analyzing the launching of near-infrared graphene SPP. Our theory incorporates the dispersive and dissipative properties of the plasmon modes to evaluate the non-Markovian em…
It is well known that collective electronic excitations in fullerene C$_{60}$ are manifested as Mie plasmons, and in graphene (the limiting case of an infinitely large fullerene) collective excitations are of plasmon-polariton type. How the properties of plasmons change in fullerenes with intermediate sizes is poorly understood. This problem is considered in current paper in the framework of the GW approximation on the example of fullerenes C$_{60}$, C$_{240}$ and C$_{540}$. The calculations show that a high-frequency plasmon-polariton resonance begins to form in C$_{240}$, and in C$_{540}$ th…
We consider a simple cubic array of metallic nanoparticles supporting extended collective plasmons that arise from the near-field dipolar interaction between localized surface plasmons in each nanoparticle. We develop a fully analytical quantum theory of the strong-coupling regime between these collective plasmons and photons resulting in plasmon polaritons in the nanoparticle array. Remarkably, we show that the polaritonic band gap and the dielectric function of the metamaterial can be significantly modulated by the polarization of light. We unveil how such an anisotropic behavior in the plas…
The Hartree-Fock-Popov theory of interacting Bose particles is developed, for modeling exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities undergoing Bose-Einstein condensation. A self-consistent treatment of the linear exciton-photon coupling and of the exciton non-linearity provides a thermal equilibrium description of the collective excitation spectrum, of the polariton energy shifts and of the phase diagram. Quantitative predictions support recent experimental findings.
Cavity control of quantum matter may offer new ways to study and manipulate many-body systems. A particularly appealing idea is to use cavities to enhance superconductivity, especially in unconventional or high-$T_c$ systems. Motivated by this, we propose a scheme for coupling Terahertz resonators to the antiferromagnetic fluctuations in a cuprate parent compound, which are believed to provide the glue for Cooper pairs in the superconducting phase. First, we derive the interaction between magnon excitations of the Neél-order and polar phonons associated with the planar oxygens. This mode also …
For molecular polaritons, disorder and phonon timescales control the activation of dark states in the thermodynamic limit
University of Colorado Boulder（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校）；Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院化学研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）
We demonstrate strong coupling between molecular excited states and surface plasmon modes of a slit array in a thin metal film. The coupling manifests itself as an anti-crossing behavior of the two newly formed polaritons. As the coupling strength grows, a new mode emerges, which is attributed to long range molecular interactions mediated by the plasmonic field. The new, molecular-like mode repels the polariton states, and leads to an opening of energy gaps both below and above the asymptotic free molecule energy.
