Bragg diffraction of microcavity polaritons by a surface acoustic wave

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how resonant Bragg scattering of microcavity polaritons by surface acoustic waves reveals a Brillouin band structure, with significant band gaps and multiple diffraction orders observable under realistic experimental conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a resonantly enhanced Bragg scattering scheme for polaritons in microcavities driven by surface acoustic waves, enabling direct visualization of polariton band structures.

Findings

Main acoustically-induced band gap up to 0.6 meV

Observation of Bragg replicas up to order n=3

Resonant enhancement significantly improves diffraction signals

Abstract

Bragg scattering of polaritons by a coherent acoustic wave is mediated and strongly enhanced by the relevant exciton states resonant with the acoustic and optic fields simultaneously. In this case, in sharp contrast with conventional acousto-optics, the resonantly enhanced Bragg spectra reveal the multiple orders of diffracted light, i.e., a Brillouin band structure of parametrically driven polaritons can be directly visualized. We analyze the above scheme for polaritons in (GaAs) semiconductor microcavities driven by a surface acoustic wave (SAW) and show that for realistic values of the SAW, $\nu_{\rm SAW} = 1$ GHz and $I_{\rm ac} \lesssim 100$ W/cm$^2$, the main acoustically-induced band gap in the polariton spectrum can be as large as $\Delta^{\rm MC}_{\rm ac} \simeq 0.6$ meV, and the Bragg replicas up to $n=3$ can be observed.