Exciton-photon coupling in GaAs bulk microcavities

Summary

A great interest in the study of exciton-photon coupling in resonant optical media such as semiconductor microcavities is currently developing both in experiments and in theory. We investigate the spectral response of a new semiconductor quantum system in which the cavity material itself is the active medium. If the Fabry-Perot quasi-mode is carefully tuned on the excitonic transition of the cavity bulk material, strong exciton-photon coupling takes place and produces new features such as a Rabi-like splitting as large as that observed in quantum well microcavities and comparable optical absorption. In addition, the polaritonic spatial dispersion and the quantization of the centre-of-mass motion introduce remarkable fine structures which are absent in the quantum well case. We demonstrate the above effects from a spectroscopic analysis of GaAs cavities, using standard reflectance and photoluminescence techniques. The experimental results are further clarified with theoretical calculations performed with an adapted transfer-matrix approach. The case of semi-cavities is finally considered and a new way to control the exciton-photon interaction in our system is achieved tailoring the photonic wave function with a change in the reflectivity phase of the mirrors.