Room-temperature polariton lasing in quantum heterostructure nanocavities

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of room-temperature polariton nanolasers using wide-gap semiconductor heterostructure nanocavities, enabling stable exciton-polariton lasing at ambient conditions for potential quantum and optical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel design of heterostructure nanocavities that achieve thermally stable excitons and enable room-temperature polariton lasing, overcoming previous thermal and quality factor limitations.

Findings

Achieved persistent polariton lasing at room temperature.

Demonstrated strong exciton-photon coupling with Rabi frequency ~370 meV.

Enabled miniaturized, integrated polariton systems.

Abstract

Controlling light-matter interactions in solid-state systems has motivated intense research to produce bosonic quasi-particles known as exciton-polaritons, which requires strong coupling between excitons and cavity photons. Ultra-low threshold coherent light emitters can be achieved through lasing from exciton-polariton condensates, but this generally requires sophisticated device structures and cryogenic temperatures. Polaritonic nanolasers operating at room temperature lie on the crucial path of related research, not only for the exploration of polariton physics at the nanoscale but also for potential applications in quantum information systems, all-optical logic gates, and ultra-low threshold lasers. However, at present, progress toward room-temperature polariton nanolasers has been limited by the thermal instability of excitons and the inherently low quality factors of nanocavities. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature polaritonic nanolasers by designing wide-gap semiconductor heterostructure nanocavities to produce thermally stable excitons coupled with nanocavity photons. The resulting mixed states of exciton-polaritons with Rabi frequencies of approximately 370 meV enable persistent polariton lasing up to room temperature, facilitating the realization of miniaturized and integrated polariton systems.