Engineering the spatial confinement of exciton-polaritons in semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to spatially confine exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities using novel artificial structures, revealing discrete energy states and angular emission patterns supported by theoretical modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a method for confining exciton-polaritons in arbitrary-shaped structures, advancing control over solid-state light-matter interactions.

Findings

Observation of confined polariton states in microcavities

Discrete energy spectrum in angle-resolved emission

Theoretical model confirms experimental results

Abstract

We demonstrate the spatial confinement of electronic excitations in a solid state system, within novel artificial structures that can be designed having arbitrary dimensionality and shape. The excitations under study are exciton-polaritons in a planar semiconductor microcavity. They are confined within a micron-sized region through lateral trapping of their photon component. Striking signatures of confined states of lower and upper polaritons are found in angle-resolved light emission spectra, where a discrete energy spectrum and broad angular patterns are present. A theoretical model supports unambiguously our observations.