Optical diode based on exciton-polaritons

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical optical diode using exciton-polaritons in microcavities, leveraging bistability and asymmetric potentials to achieve unidirectional signal transmission without external control.

Contribution

It introduces a novel polariton-based optical diode design that is robust, high-speed, and does not require external modulation.

Findings

Achieves unidirectional transmission with full forward signal and negligible reverse transmission.

Demonstrates robustness to disorder in microcavities.

Operates at gigahertz repetition rates.

Abstract

We propose theoretically an optical diode based on exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities. A flow of polaritons in the bistable regime is used to send signals through an asymmetric fixed potential that favours the tunneling of particles in one direction. Through dynamic modelling of the coherent polariton field, we demonstrate the characteristics of an ideal diode, namely that the forward signal is fully transmitted while the transmission in the reverse direction tends to zero, without any additional external control. Moreover, the system proves to be robust to the presence of disorder, intrinsic to microcavities, and can function at gigahertz repetition rates.