POLAROMA · Polariton devices: the future of optoelectronics

Final Activity Report Summary - POLAROMA (Polariton devices: the future of optoelectronics)

The research within the POLAROMA project has been focussed on the physics of exciton-polaritons, half light half matter quasiparticles, which can be created by light in semiconductors. In collaboration with more than 10 research groups all around the world, the Chairholder has studied a number of remarkable new effects linked with the collective behaviour of exciton-polaritons confined in semiconductor microcavities. It has been shown that due to their specific quantum properties the polaritons may form superfluids similar to the superfluids of Helium II, which propagate without viscosity inside semiconductors. These superfluids possess have been described theoretically by the Chairholder and then studied experimentally by the groups from Madrid and Paris. In collaboration with Chairholder, the group from the Polytechnical School in Lausanne has observed for the first time a new type of vortices, so-called "half quantum vortices" which constitute elementary excitations of the exciton-polariton superfluids. This result has been published in Science in 2009. The concept of "polariton neurons" formulated by the Chairholder and collaborators (Physical Review Letters, 2008) is now employed by several groups in order to create the optical integrated circuits and optical gates based on exciton-polaritons. These works have made possible realisation of a new generation of opto-electronic devices, which may be called "polariton devices". They are charaterised by an extremely low power consumption and ultrafast action. Realisation of the polariton devices in Europe would strongly enhance its competitivness in micro and opto electronics.

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