Polarization dependent effects in exciton-polariton systems in semiconductor microcavities

Abstract

Unique, polarization sensitive, effects of exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcav- ities are examined theoretically in both the linear and non-linear regimes. In the linear regime the energy splitting between transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarized modes is shown to allow for the direct excitation of vortices and the sep- aration of polariton spin currents via the optical spin Hall effect. Vortices also appear naturally when polaritons undergo elastic (Rayleigh) scattering in a disordered poten- tial or they can be artificially implanted using multiple optical beams. In the non-linear regime, the effects of polariton-polariton interactions are modeled in the framework of the mean-field approximation, using the (spin-dependent) Gross-Pitaevskii equations. The results from these equations are shown to complement recent experimental mea- surements of the degenerate polariton parametric oscillator, where it is shown that the microcavity can act as a polarization sensitive optical switch. Furthermore, the polarization multistability is shown to give rise to the formation of polarized patterns from uniformly polarized excitations and allow new applications of microcavities includ- ing spin memory elements and optical circuits. Finally, the behaviour of a localized polariton condensate is examined in a magnetic field.

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