2014/10/31 by O. V. Kibis, Kristín B. Arnardóttir, K. B. Arnardottir +1
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Band gap #Condensed matter physics #Direct and indirect band gaps #Electron #Intrinsic semiconductor #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photon #Photon energy #Physics #Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Quasi Fermi level #Renormalization #Semiconductor #Semimetal #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Vacuum level #Vacuum state #Valence (chemistry) #cond-mat.mes-hall #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.90.055802
published as Phys. Rev. A 90, 055802 (2014) · Published version
openalex publication_date 2014/11/18 · arxiv created 2014/11/20 · arxiv updated 2014/11/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We consider theoretically a closed (zero-dimensional) semiconductor microcavity where a confined vacuum photonic mode is coupled to electrons in the valence band of the semiconductor. It is shown that vacuum-induced virtual electron transitions between valence and conduction bands result in renormalization of electron energy spectrum. As a consequence, vacuum-induced band gaps appear within the valence band. Calculated values of the band gaps are of sub-meV scale, which makes this QED effect measurable in state-of-the-art experiments.