All-optical phase modulation in a cavity-polariton Mach–Zehnder interferometer

Quantum fluids based on light is a highly developing research field, since they provide a nonlinear platform for developing optical functionalities and quantum simulators. An important issue in this context is the ability to coherently control the properties of the fluid. Here we propose an all-opti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2014-02, Vol.5 (1), p.3278, Article 3278
Main Authors: Sturm, C., Tanese, D., Nguyen, H.S., Flayac, H., Galopin, E., Lemaître, A., Sagnes, I., Solnyshkov, D., Amo, A., Malpuech, G., Bloch, J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/624/1075
639/624/1107/328/1650
639/624/400
Condensed Matter
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Optics
Physics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:Quantum fluids based on light is a highly developing research field, since they provide a nonlinear platform for developing optical functionalities and quantum simulators. An important issue in this context is the ability to coherently control the properties of the fluid. Here we propose an all-optical approach for controlling the phase of a flow of cavity-polaritons, making use of their strong interactions with localized excitons. Here we illustrate the potential of this method by implementing a compact exciton–polariton interferometer, which output intensity and polarization can be optically controlled. This interferometer is cascadable with already reported polariton devices and is promising for future polaritonic quantum optic experiments. Complex phase patterns could be also engineered using this optical method, providing a key tool to build photonic artificial gauge fields. Quantum fluids such as cavity-polaritons show nonlinear optical properties of interest in applications such as quantum optics. Here, Sturm and colleagues demonstrate an optical control of the phase of a polariton flow, and make use of this to realize a compact exciton–polariton interferometer.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms4278