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An electrically pumped polariton laser

Nature volume 497, pages 348–352 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Conventional semiconductor laser emission relies on stimulated emission of photons1,2, which sets stringent requirements on the minimum amount of energy necessary for its operation3,4. In comparison, exciton–polaritons in strongly coupled quantum well microcavities5 can undergo stimulated scattering that promises more energy-efficient generation of coherent light by ‘polariton lasers’3,6. Polariton laser operation has been demonstrated in optically pumped semiconductor microcavities at temperatures up to room temperature7,8,9,10,11,12, and such lasers can outperform their weak-coupling counterparts in that they have a lower threshold density12,13. Even though polariton diodes have been realized14,15,16, electrically pumped polariton laser operation, which is essential for practical applications, has not been achieved until now. Here we present an electrically pumped polariton laser based on a microcavity containing multiple quantum wells. To prove polariton laser emission unambiguously, we apply a magnetic field and probe the hybrid light–matter nature of the polaritons. Our results represent an important step towards the practical implementation of polaritonic light sources and electrically injected condensates, and can be extended to room-temperature operation using wide-bandgap materials.

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Figure 1: Quantum well microcavity polariton diode and characteristics.
Figure 2: Spectral emission features in various excitation regimes.
Figure 3: Current-density dependency of the polariton diode emission.
Figure 4: Magnetic-field-dependent circular polarization spectra.
Figure 5: Zeeman splitting of the polaritonic emission.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the State of Bavaria, the National Science Foundation and by JSPS through its FIRST programme. I.G.S. acknowledges support from the Eimskip foundation. I.A.S. acknowledges support from the ‘Center of excellence in polaritonics’, IRSES SPINMET and POLAPHEN projects. A.R.-I. acknowledges a German National Academic Foundation fellowship. The authors thank T. Sünner, I. Lederer and A. Schade for experimental and technical support.

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Author notes

  1. Christian Schneider and Arash Rahimi-Iman: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Physik and Wilhelm-Conrad-Röntgen-Research Center for Complex Material Systems, Universität Würzburg, D-97074 Würzburg, Am Hubland, Germany,

    Christian Schneider, Arash Rahimi-Iman, Julian Fischer, Matthias Amthor, Matthias Lermer, Adriana Wolf, Lukas Worschech, Martin Kamp, Stephan Reitzenstein, Alfred Forchel & Sven Höfling

  2. E. L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Na Young Kim & Yoshihisa Yamamoto

  3. Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan,

    Na Young Kim

  4. Science Institute, University of Iceland, Dunhaga 3, IS-107 Reykjavik, Iceland,

    Ivan G. Savenko & Ivan A. Shelykh

  5. Division of Physics and Applied Physics, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore,

    Ivan G. Savenko & Ivan A. Shelykh

  6. Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of Science, Chernogolovka 142432, Russia,

    Vladimir D. Kulakovskii

  7. Institut für Festkörperphysik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 36, D-10623 Berlin, Germany,

    Stephan Reitzenstein

  8. National Institute of Informatics, Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8430, Japan,

    Yoshihisa Yamamoto

Authors
  1. Christian Schneider
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Contributions

S.H. initiated the study and guided the work together with S.R., Y.Y. and A.F. C.S., M.L. and S.H. designed and grew the wafer and performed pre-characterization. A.W. and M.K. processed the devices. A.R.-I., J.F., N.Y.K., L.W. and S.R. established an electrical/optical Fourier-space spectroscopy setup. A.R.-I., J.F., M.A., C.S., S.H., N.Y.K. and S.R. performed experiments. A.R.-I., C.S. and M.A. analysed and interpreted the experimental data, supported by S.H., S.R., V.D.K., I.G.S. and I.A.S. C.S., A.R.-I. and S.H. wrote the manuscript, with input from all co-authors. C.S. and A.R.-I. contributed equally to the study.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Christian Schneider or Sven Höfling.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Schneider, C., Rahimi-Iman, A., Kim, N. et al. An electrically pumped polariton laser. Nature 497, 348–352 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12036

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