Acta Photonica Sinica, Volume. 54, Issue 5, 0527001(2025)
Investigation of Polariton Condensate Based on Stimulated Scattering at Room Temperature
Over the past decade, polariton condensate has attracted tremendous attention. In the semiconductor environment, the energy relaxation of polariton and the achievement of condensate are mediated by phonon relaxation. But this cooling mechanism is inefficiency, alternatively, the stimulated scattering mechanism of polariton condensate is studied in GaAs and CdTe, which is facing serious problems including the low saturation density and the small binding energy of exciton. As a result, ZnO, a wide bandgap material holds great promising for polariton condensate at room temperature, unfortunately, the stimulated scattering relaxation mechanism in ZnO has rarely been examined. Moreover, the occupancy in the ground state of polariton is crucial to trigger the stimulated scattering mechanism, but the evolution behavior of occupancy under different excitation powers has rarely been addressed by experiment in ZnO. In this paper, we report polariton condensate based on the stimulated scattering mechanism in ZnO at room temperature.Firstly, ZnO microwire is employed and fabricated via a carbonthermal method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Meanwhile, the radius size of cross section of microwire is considered to obtain polariton dispersion with proper energy range and effective mass. Then, to assess the strong coupling regime between photon and exciton in the sample, the dispersion of polariton is measured by using angle-resolved Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy technique with very weak excitation lasers and different polarization configurations at room temperature. After that, the experiment of power-dependence is carried out to obtain the evolvement of polariton dispersion. In addition, the evolvement of PL peak intensity, blueshift and linewidth in the ground state of polariton under different excitation powers are analyzed. Furthermore, the occupancy distribution along polariton dispersion for different excitation powers and the condensate fraction are studied. In the next step, the dynamical mechanism of polariton condensate is proposed according to the experimental data. In addition, the numerical simulation of Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation coupled with the Boltzmann rate equation to explain the dynamical mechanism of polariton condensate is performed to characterize the physical properties.The prepared ZnO microwire processes smooth facets and a regular hexagonal cross section, which can serve as Whispering Gallery (WG) optical resonator, in such quasi one-dimensional system the strong coupling between exciton and photon is obtained and the resultant Rabi splitting of polariton reaches 300 meV, demonstrating the robustness of the polariton in ZnO WG microcavity. The study of power-dependence measurement shows that the polariton condensate at room temperature is achieved and the threshold of condensate is 10 nW. At the same time, the exclusive PL emission from the ground state of polariton dispersion, the nonlinear increase of PL peak intensity, the rapid decrease of PL linewidth and the blueshift in the ground state of polariton are observed. It is noted that the maximum value of blueshift in the ground state of polariton is about 12 meV, which is 4% of the Rabi splitting, demonstrating that the photon and exciton remain in the strong coupling regime. The study of occupancy distribution along the dispersion with increasing excitation power shows that the occupancy distribution do not follow the ideal Bose-Einstein distribution function above threshold, indicating that there exists strong interaction between polariton, meanwhile the experimental condensate fraction is about 10%, because there exists strong interaction between polariton in condensate droplet, which is responsible for the depletion of condensate in ground state and thus in favor of the occupation in excited states above threshold. This can explain the obvious thermal cloud of noncondensated polariton under high excitation powers (such as 40 nW). Since the energy range and the effective mass of polariton dispersion exclude the phonon mediated relaxation mechanism during the condensate procedure, the polariton-polariton scattering relaxation is dominated and efficiency due to the large exciton oscillator strength in ZnO. The proposal that polartion condensate mechanism is based on polariton stimulated scattering is supported by the numerical simulation of GP equation, which is demonstrating the dynamical procedure of polariton condensate in ZnO WG microcavity at room temperature. The high energy state of polariton is served as a reservoir. Below threshold, the relaxation rate into the ground state from the reservoir is not able to overcome the radiation rate and the gain is not able to overcome the loss, then the occupancy is well below unity in the ground state and the polariton condensate does not occur. At threshold, the relaxation rate into the ground state balances the radiation rate and the occupancy in the ground state is unity and drives the stimulated scattering mechanism then the polariton condensate is achieved above threshold.In present study, by preparing processing unique properties, such as energy range and effective mass of polariton dispersion, polariton condensate based on the stimulated scattering in ZnO WG microcavity at room temperature is experimentally investigated successfully via angle-resolved PL spectroscopy technique by increasing the power of excitation laser, and the experimental condensate fraction is obtained. The direct occupancy distribution along the dispersion under different excitation powers is acquired, and the dynamics of polariton condensate driven by the stimulated scattering mechanism is well described by the GP equation coupled with the Boltzmann rate equation. The study shows that the dynamical mechanism of polariton condensate in ZnO WG microcavity at room temperature is stimulated scattering, we hope that our basic strategy and findings can be helpful on the design of quantum device based on the polariton condensate and on the understanding of the relationship between polariton-polariton scattering and quantum manipulation.
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Yanjing LING, Bing XIE, Shuang ZHANG, Liping SUN, Meng ZENG. Investigation of Polariton Condensate Based on Stimulated Scattering at Room Temperature[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2025, 54(5): 0527001
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Received: Nov. 14, 2024
Accepted: Feb. 6, 2025
Published Online: Jun. 18, 2025
The Author Email: Yanjing LING (lingyanjing@bbgu.edu.cn)