Electrically pumped polariton lasers

Abstract

Exciton–polaritons arising from strong coupling between excitons and photons are composite bosons which are half light and half matter. Due to their relatively light effective mass (seven orders of magnitude less than the mass of a hydrogen atom), they could potentially condense at temperatures much higher than those required for atom Bose–Einstein condensations (tens of nanokelvins). This makes them not only a perfect model for fundamental studies of dynamical Bose–Einstein condensates, but also a suitable system for the design of novel optical components. Various polaritonic devices such as polariton parametric amplifiers, optically pumped polariton lasers and polariton light-emitting diodes have been achieved. With the recently reported electrically pumped polariton lasers added to the list, the polaritons seem to have made their way out of the laboratory and have a bright, white future ahead.