Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK 8000, Aarhus, Denmark.
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187, Dresden, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2018 Apr 3;9(1):1309. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03742-7.
The realization of exciton polaritons-hybrid excitations of semiconductor quantum well excitons and cavity photons-has been of great technological and scientific significance. In particular, the short-range collisional interaction between excitons has enabled explorations into a wealth of nonequilibrium and hydrodynamical effects that arise in weakly nonlinear polariton condensates. Yet, the ability to enhance optical nonlinearities would enable quantum photonics applications and open up a new realm of photonic many-body physics in a scalable and engineerable solid-state environment. Here we outline a route to such capabilities in cavity-coupled semiconductors by exploiting the giant interactions between excitons in Rydberg states. We demonstrate that optical nonlinearities in such systems can be vastly enhanced by several orders of magnitude and induce nonlinear processes at the level of single photons.
激子极化激元——半导体量子阱激子和腔光子的混合激发——的实现具有重要的技术和科学意义。特别是，激子之间的短程碰撞相互作用使得人们能够探索弱非线性极化激元凝聚体中出现的大量非平衡和流体动力学效应。然而，增强光非线性的能力将使量子光子学应用成为可能，并在可扩展和可设计的固态环境中开辟出光子多体物理的新领域。在这里，我们通过利用里德堡态激子之间的巨大相互作用，概述了在腔耦合半导体中实现这种能力的途径。我们证明，这种系统中的光学非线性可以被大大增强几个数量级，并在单光子水平上诱导非线性过程。
