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Room-temperature polariton lasing in an organic single-crystal microcavity

Nature Photonics volume 4, pages 371–375 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The optical properties of organic semiconductors are almost exclusively described using the Frenkel exciton picture1. In this description, the strong Coulombic interaction between an excited electron and the charged vacancy it leaves behind (a hole) is automatically taken into account. If, in an optical microcavity, the exciton–photon interaction is strong compared to the excitonic and photonic decay rates, a second quasiparticle, the microcavity polariton, must be introduced to properly account for this coupling2. Coherent, laser-like emission from polaritons has been predicted to occur when the ground-state occupancy of polaritons 〈ngs〉, reaches 1 (ref. 3). This process, known as polariton lasing, can occur at thresholds much lower than required for conventional lasing. Polaritons in organic semiconductors are highly stable at room temperature, but to our knowledge, there has as yet been no report of nonlinear emission from these structures. Here, we demonstrate polariton lasing at room temperature in an organic microcavity composed of a melt-grown anthracene single crystal sandwiched between two dielectric mirrors.

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Figure 1: Experimental structure and dispersion of the b-polarized polariton.
Figure 2: Intensity dependence.
Figure 3: Angle-resolved photoluminescence.
Figure 4: Temporal response and occupation number.
Figure 5: Gain measurement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge fruitful discussions with H. Deng. This work was performed at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility at the University of Michigan and was supported by Universal Display Corp. and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    S. Kéna-Cohen

  2. Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    S. Kéna-Cohen & S. R. Forrest

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  1. S. Kéna-Cohen
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Contributions

S.K.C. and S.R.F conceived the experiments. S.K.C. fabricated the structures and carried out the measurements. Both authors contributed to the analysis and manuscript.

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Correspondence to S. R. Forrest.

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Kéna-Cohen, S., Forrest, S. Room-temperature polariton lasing in an organic single-crystal microcavity. Nature Photon 4, 371–375 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.86

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