2009/08/26 by A. A. P. Trichet, Trichet, Aurélien, Lu Sun +14
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research #Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0908.3838
Phonon damping is the main source of pure dephasing in the solid state,\nlimiting many fundamental quantum effects to low temperature observations. Here\nwe show how excitons in semiconductors can be totally decoupled from the phonon\nbath, even at room temperature, thanks to their strong interaction with\nphotons. To do so, we investigated ZnO microwires, a new semiconductor\nnanostructure made of large band-gap material where the light can be trapped\nand guided into whispering gallery modes. In this system, the very large\ncoupling regime between exciton and photon results in unusual exciton-polariton\nof one-dimensional character and Rabi splitting as large as 300meV. We find\nthat polariton modes of excitonic fraction up to 75% exhibit no thermal\nbroadening up to room temperature. We show that this remarkable behavior is due\nto the very large Rabi splitting as compared to the LO phonon energy.\n