Dynamic Stark Effect in Strongly Coupled Microcavity Exciton-Polaritons

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental observation of a non-resonant dynamic Stark shift in strongly coupled microcavity exciton-polaritons, demonstrating a significant blue shift that enables ultrafast manipulation of polariton condensates.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental demonstration of a dynamic Stark effect in strongly coupled microcavity polaritons, with results aligning well with theoretical predictions.

Findings

Observed a blue shift approaching meV scale at 10K

Demonstrated the effect with femtosecond pump-probe measurements

Energy level structure remains unaffected by the Stark shift

Abstract

We present experimental observations of a non-resonant dynamic Stark shift in strongly coupled microcavity quantum well exciton-polaritons - a system which provides a rich variety of solid-state collective phenomena. The Stark effect is demonstrated in a GaAs/AlGaAs system at 10K by femtosecond pump-probe measurements, with the blue shift approaching the meV scale for a pump fluence of 2 mJcm^-2 and 50 meV red detuning, in good agreement with theory. The energy level structure of the strongly coupled polariton Rabi-doublet remains unaffected by the blue shift. The demonstrated effect should allow generation of ultrafast density-independent potentials and imprinting well-defined phase profiles on polariton condensates, providing a powerful tool for manipulation of these condensates, similar to dipole potentials in cold atom systems.