Quantum and non-linear optics with semiconductor microcavities

Semiconductor microcavities have shown their unique potential to play with light in the solid-state. Among the numerous phenomena encountered in these objects, cavity polaritons exhibit fascinating properties. These objects... [ view full abstract ]

Semiconductor microcavities have shown their unique potential to play with light in the solid-state. Among the numerous phenomena encountered in these objects, cavity polaritons exhibit fascinating properties. These objects are hybrid light-matter quasi-particles, with mixed photonic and excitonic parts. Hence, they propagate like light but also strongly interact with their solid-state environment (electronic excitations). They constitute (quantum) fluids of light with striking particularities, which have been uncovered over the years, like polariton condensation, superfluidity, quantized vortices...

Over the last few years, at C2N, we have developed a polaritonic platform, by sculpting microcavities at the micro-scale. This creates a new playground to emulate quantum systems and Hamiltonians. 

In this talk, I will show a few examples of our recent developments: a photonic benzene molecule for chiral photon emission, a photonic polyacetylene chain for topological lasing and a honeycomb lattice for the implementation of Dirac physics