Observation of the Polariton Drag Effect
ORAL
Abstract
In this work, we report the observation of polariton drag effect in a semiconductor structure that has been designed to maximize the light-matter coupling, the namely strong coupling of exciton-polaritons in a solid-state microcavity. We show that collisions of polaritons with the free electrons results in a change in the angle of emission of the photons from the cavity structure. The effect is asymmetric, significantly slowing down the polaritons when they move oppositely to the electrons, while the polaritons are only slightly accelerated by electrons moving in the same direction. In conclusion, we have demonstrated proof of principle that a DC current can directly alter the momentum of photons moving in the cavity; this has the direct effect of changing the angle of emission. This polariton drag effect is beam steering using a DC current to tune the angle of a light beam since the experiment is a photon-in, photon-out system.
*The work at Pittsburgh was funded by the Army Research Office (W911NF-15-1- 0466). The work of sample fabrication at Princeton was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF-4420) and by the National Science Foundation MRSEC program through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (DMR-0819860)
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Presenters
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Burcu OZDEN
- Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh
- Physics, University of Pittsburgh