Multivalley engineering in semiconductor microcavities

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that semiconductor microcavities with separate periodic potentials for excitons and photons support multivalley ground-states with polarization-valley coupling, enabling valleytronics and novel quantum phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multivalley dispersion in microcavities with polarization-valley coupling, expanding the potential for valleytronics and quantum effects in these systems.

Findings

Supports degenerate ground-states at non-zero in-plane momenta

Predicts spontaneous momentum symmetry breaking

Enables two-mode squeezing under specific excitations

Abstract

We consider exciton-photon coupling in semiconductor microcavities in which separate periodic potentials have been embedded for excitons and photons. We show theoretically that this system supports degenerate ground-states appearing at non-zero in-plane momenta, corresponding to multiple valleys in reciprocal space, which are further separated in polarization corresponding to a polarization-valley coupling in the system. Aside forming a basis for valleytronics, the multivalley dispersion is predicted to allow for spontaneous momentum symmetry breaking and two-mode squeezing under non-resonant and resonant excitation, respectively.