Future Trends in Microelectronics: From Nanophotonics to Sensors to Energy

Towards Intersubband Polaritonics: How Fast Can Light and Electrons Mate?

A. A. Anappara, L. Sorba, A. Tredicucci

NEST, CNR-INFM and Scuola Normale Superiore Piazza San Silvestro 12, 56127 Pisa, Italy

G. Günter, A. Sell, A. Leitenstorfer, R. Huber

Fachbereich Physik and Center for Applied Photonics, Universität Konstanz Universitätsstrasse 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany

S. De Liberato,^† C. Ciuti

Labo. Materieaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, Univ. Paris Diderot-Paris 7 and CNRS, UMR 7162, Bâtiment Condorcet, 75205 Paris, France

G. Biasiol

Laboratorio Nazionale TASC CNR-INFM, Area Science Park, 1-34012 Trieste, Italy

1.   Introduction

Interaction of light with electronic excitations is a fundamental physical process that can be usually described in terms of absorption or emission of photons. The coupling between a single photonic mode and one elementary transition is quantified by the so-called vacuum Rabi frequency Ω. A strong-coupling regime is achieved when Ω is larger than radiative and nonradiative system loss rates: in this nonperturbative condition, eigenstates are linear superposition of photonic and electronic excitations. This peculiar regime is actively investigated in many research fields, such as ultracold atoms in optical cavities,¹ Cooper-pair boxes in microwave resonators,² excitonic transitions in semiconductor microcavities,³ and surface-plasmon resonators.⁴ In the case of atomic transitions, the coupling frequency is much smaller than the transition frequency ω₁₂, which ...