Theory of Intersubband Antipolaritons Mauro F. Pereira Theory of Semiconductor Materials and Optics Materials and Engineering Research Institute Sheffield Hallam University
Outline Introduction Analytical approximations for the optical response and quasi- particle dispersions Interband vs intersubband coupling Summary
Polaritons lower polariton branch upper polariton wavenumber k frequency light ( =c·k) material excitation
Interband polariton (??) valence band conduction band no sharply defined excitation energy no polariton!
Exciton polariton valence band conduction band no sharply defined excitation energy no polariton! exciton sharply defined excitation energy polariton!
Excitons Wannier equation: Pauli-blocking limits excitation. no inversion!
Intersubband polariton valence band subbands: approximately parallel bands sharply defined excitation energy (even without coulomb interaction) polariton
Polariton Coupling in Intersubband Transitions Theoretical predictions by Ansheng Liu, PRB50, 8569 (1994); PRB55, 7101 (1997). Measurement of microcavity polariton splitting of intersubband transitions by Dini et al, PRL90, (2003).
Intersubband antipolariton valence band subbandsinverted subbands
Prism GaAs Substrate Al As low refractive index layers MQW cavity core air Microresonator Geometry
Prism GaAs Substrate Al As low refractive index layers MQW cavity core air Microresonator Geometry
Microresonator Mode The microresonator mode is determined by the wave equation Neglecting the imaginary part of ε(ω) a simple solution can be used
A linearly polarized electric field promotes and electron from the valence to the condcution band leaving a positive particle or hole behind. The Coulomb interaction creates a hydrogen atom like resonance. Excitons
The Interband Polariton Case The dielectric constant is obtained from the numerical solution of Semiconductor Bloch Equations The excitonic resonance at low temperature is adjusted to the simple formula
The Interband Polariton Case (TM) Microcavity light-hole interband (exciton-) polariton with TM polarization dispeon as function of incidence defined in Fig. 1. The solid (blue) lines are for a pump-generated density N=0 and the dashed (red) curves are for N= cm-2. The inset displays the commutator of the exciton operator as a function of injected carrier density. The diamond (blue) and circle (red) symbols correspond, respectively, to the commutator for the solid and dashed dispersions in the main part of the plot. Microcavity light-hole interband (exciton-polariton). The solid (blue) lines are for a pump-generated density N=0 and the dashed (red) curves are for N= cm-2. The inset displays the commutator of the exciton operator as a function of injected carrier density.
Intersubband Resonances in a Microcavity
Antipolaritons Analytical Expressions obtained considering: Same effective mass in all subbands. Neglect the exchange and subband shifts (that usually compensate each other to a large extent). Keep only the depolarization correction. Averaged k-independent dephasing (can be frequency dependent and the expression is still analytical).
Compensation of Many-Body Effects
Analytical Approximation for the Effective Dielectric Constant Analytical Expression for the dielectric constant
Analytical Dispersion Relations
Antipolaritons dispersion relation M.F. Pereira, Phys Rev B 75, (2007).
Anomalous dispersions as a function of inversion
In both absorption and gain cases, the branches are repelled from the cold cavity crossing as the excitation density increases.
Microresonator with a Cascade Laser Core Intersubband antipolariton dispersion relations for a 13.3 μm microresonator designed with 30 periods of the active region of the quantum cascade laser of C. Sirtori. et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 3486 (1998).
Summary In summary, this paper demonstrates that in the intersubband case, there is interesting physics beyond the polariton concept: (i) Anomalous dispersions can be found for the optical gain region in which the medium is inverted (ii) These dispersions are well described by an "intersubband antipolariton" (iii) Bosonic Effects can be manipulated by selective injection.
Forthcoming (i) Full treatment of diagonal and nondiagonal dephasing. (ii) Full reflection and transmission solution including many body effects beyond Hartree Fock. (Quantum Mechanical Input Output Relations). (iii) Study multiple subband system with coexisting gain and absorption branches. (iv) Further studies of strong correlation in intersubband optics beyond bosonic approximations.