Collective phenomena in semiconductor microcavities
by
Ivan A. Shelykh(University of Iceland)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FA31
FA31
Description
A semiconductor microcavity is a photonic structure designed to enhance the
light-matter interaction. The cavity photons are confined between two mirrors and
resonantly interact with the excitonic transition of a 2-dimensional semiconductor
quantum well. In strong coupling regime the normal modes of the system are
cavity polaritons that are half-light, half-matter quasiparticles. Being composite
objects, polaritons inherit the properties of both cavity photons and excitons. The
presence of the photonic component results in extremely small effective mass of
cavity polaritons (10-4- 10-5 of free electron mass), while excitonic component leads
to the efficient polariton- polariton interactions.
This makes cavity polaritons a unique laboratory for study of the quantum
collective phenomena, including:
1. High temperature BEC
2. Superfluidity
3. Bistability and multistability
4. Unconventional superconductivity
In the talk we plan to give an overview of the polariton physics and in this context
discuss the effects mentioned above.
