TY - JOUR

T1 - Magnetic control over the zitterbewegung of exciton-polaritons

AU - Sedov, E. S.

AU - Sedova, I. E.

AU - Arakelian, S. M.

AU - Kavokin, A. V.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/8

Y1 - 2020/8

N2 - The effect of the zitterbewegung consisting in trembling of trajectory of propagating particles may, in principle, be found in a variety of physical systems characterized by split kinetic energy dispersion branches. However, in a majority of material systems the effect is too weak to be observable. Specially designed semiconductor heterostructures representing optical microcavities with embedded quantum wells allow observing the zitterbewegung of exciton-polaritons that are optical cavity modes strongly hybridized with excitons in quantum wells. Here we show that external magnetic fields applied in the plane of the microcavity amplify this effect and allow for tuning the amplitude and the period of oscillations of polariton trajectories, thus being a convenient tool of control. These results pave the way towards realization of ballistic polariton transistors based on the spin-orbit effect, conceptually similar to Datta-and-Das transistors.

AB - The effect of the zitterbewegung consisting in trembling of trajectory of propagating particles may, in principle, be found in a variety of physical systems characterized by split kinetic energy dispersion branches. However, in a majority of material systems the effect is too weak to be observable. Specially designed semiconductor heterostructures representing optical microcavities with embedded quantum wells allow observing the zitterbewegung of exciton-polaritons that are optical cavity modes strongly hybridized with excitons in quantum wells. Here we show that external magnetic fields applied in the plane of the microcavity amplify this effect and allow for tuning the amplitude and the period of oscillations of polariton trajectories, thus being a convenient tool of control. These results pave the way towards realization of ballistic polariton transistors based on the spin-orbit effect, conceptually similar to Datta-and-Das transistors.

KW - magnetic field

KW - polariton

KW - polariton condensate

KW - polarization

KW - spinorbit interaction

KW - zitterbewegung

KW - HOLE

KW - spin-orbit interaction

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091096722&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/5af6233c-929e-3ead-b18a-f151949b57f1/

U2 - 10.1088/1367-2630/aba731

DO - 10.1088/1367-2630/aba731

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85091096722

VL - 22

JO - New Journal of Physics

JF - New Journal of Physics

SN - 1367-2630

IS - 8

M1 - 083059

ER -