Project Description
Project Overview: Exciton-polaritons form upon strong coupling between electronic excitations of a material and photonic states of a surrounding microcavity. In organic semiconductors the special nature of excited states leads to particularly strong coupling and facilitates condensation of exciton-polaritons at room temperature, which may lead to electrically pumped organic polariton lasers. It has been demonstrated that the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of exciton-polaritons can exhibit spontaneous emission of coherent light. Thus, by generating this BEC, we can make a laser that doesn’t require population inversion. The objective of this project is to generate BEC through the strong coupling of excitons in a semiconductor with photons trapped in an optical cavity (i.e., between two mirrors). This requires high quality factor (high-Q) cavities, making it a materials processing challenge. The team will manufacture a high-Q cavity and characterize the exciton-polaritons in the semiconductor material using photoluminescence spectroscopy and reflectance spectroscopy.
Client: Dr. Mike Arnold, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Student Team: Adam Alfieri
