Polarization dependence of nonlinear wave mixing of spinor polaritons in semiconductor microcavities

Abstract

The pseudo-spin dynamics of propagating exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities are known to be strongly influenced by TE-TM splitting. As a vivid consequence, in the Rayleigh scattering regime, the TE-TM splitting gives rise to the optical spin Hall effect (OSHE). Much less is known about its role in the nonlinear optical regime in which four-wave mixing for example allows the formation of spatial patterns in the polariton density, such that hexagons and two-spot patterns are observable in the far field. Here we present a detailed analysis of spin-dependent four-wave mixing processes, by combining the (linear) physics of TE-TM splitting with spin-dependent nonlinear processes, i.e., exciton-exciton interaction and fermionic phase-space filling. Our combined theoretical and experimental study elucidates the complex physics of the four-wave mixing processes that govern polarization and orientation of off-axis modes.

References in corpus (8)

• All-optical polariton transistor
• Collective coherence in planar semiconductor microcavities
• Parametric Processes in a Strong-Coupling Planar Microcavity
• Influence of exciton-exciton correlations on the polarization characteristics of the polariton amplification in semiconductor microcavities
• All-optical flow control of a polariton condensate using non-resonant excitation
• Observation of long-lived polariton states in semiconductor microcavities across the parametric threshold
• Transverse optical instability patterns in semiconductor microcavities: polariton scattering and low-intensity all-optical switching
• Order-disorder oscillations in exciton-polariton superfluids

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Emerging supersolidity from a polariton condensate in a photonic crystal waveguide
• All-optical beam steering using the polariton lighthouse effect
• Directional optical switching and transistor functionality using optical parametric oscillation in a spinor polariton fluid
• Spontaneous patterns in coherently driven polariton microcavities
• Nonlinear Mixing of Waves in a Yukawa One Component Plasma
• Externally Controlled Lotka-Volterra Dynamics in a Linearly Polarized Polariton Fluid