Optically Erasing Disorder in Semiconductor Microcavities with Dynamic Nuclear Polarization

Published: Sunday, 12 February 2012 - 16:37 UTC

Author:

Liew, T.C.H. and V. Savona, Optically Erasing Disorder in Semiconductor Microcavities with Dynamic Nuclear Polarization. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2011. 106(14): p. 146404.

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.146404

The mean squared value of the photonic disorder is found to be reduced by a factor of 100 in a typical GaAs based microcavity when exposed to a circularly polarized continuous wave optical pump without any special spatial patterning. Resonant excitation of the cavity mode excites a spatially nonuniform distribution of spin-polarized electrons, which depends on the photonic disorder profile. Electrons transfer spin to nuclei via the hyperfine contact interaction, inducing a long-living Overhauser magnetic field able to modify the potential of exciton polaritons.