Mean-Field and Quantum Interactions of Strongly Confined Exciton-Polaritons

Více o knize

This dissertation presents quantum optics experiments in a cavity quantum electrodynamics setting, focusing on the interactions of quantum well exciton-polaritons in hybrid dielectric-semiconductor microcavities. A carbon dioxide laser-based technique is utilized to fabricate zerodimensional polariton boxes within a flexible fiber cavity at cryogenic temperatures, achieving strong optical mode confinement and enhanced polaritonic interactions. Frequency- and time-domain measurements reveal long cavity lifetimes, primarily limited by the semiconductor. The tunability of the fiber cavity, along with a favorable nonlinearity-to-decay rate ratio, allows exploration of varying scenarios, from negligible polariton interactions to regimes dominated by quantum fluctuations. Photon correlation measurements serve to assess the Liouvillian eigenspectrum governing the dynamics of the driven-dissipative system across this spectrum. As the particle number approaches the thermodynamic limit, we observe critical slowing down of system dynamics, with a reduction of over nine orders of magnitude in decay rate during a first-order dissipative phase transition (DPT). In the weak excitation regime, photon correlation measurements reveal antibunching, indicating the emergence of single-particle properties in exciton-polaritons. Additionally, we report unexpected long-lived photon bunching, attributed to a thermal bath of localized excitons interact