Photon lasing in a GaAs microcavity: similarities with a polariton condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates the lasing behavior of a GaAs microcavity, revealing that features resembling polariton condensation can occur even in the weak coupling photon lasing regime, highlighting similarities between the two phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates that certain experimental signatures of polariton Bose-Einstein condensation also appear in the weak coupling lasing regime of a GaAs microcavity.

Findings

Observation of polariton-like emission features in weak coupling regime

Evidence of strong coupling with 15 meV Rabi splitting at low excitation

Similar emission patterns in both polariton condensation and photon lasing

Abstract

We study experimentally the lasing regime of a GaAs based microcavity sample under strong optical pumping. The very same sample exhibits the strong coupling regime at low excitation power with a Rabi splitting as large as 15 meV. We show that some features which may be considered as experimental evidence of polariton Bose Einstein condensation are also observed in the weak coupling regime when the cavity is behaving as a regular photon laser. In particular, the emission pattern in the lasing regime displays a sharp peak near the energy minimum followed by a Boltzmann distribution at higher energies.