Directional optical switching and transistor functionality using optical parametric oscillation in a spinor polariton fluid

Abstract

Over the past decade, spontaneously emerging patterns in the density of polaritons in semiconductor microcavities were found to be a promising candidate for all-optical switching. But recent approaches were mostly restricted to scalar fields, did not benefit from the polariton's unique spin-dependent properties, and utilized switching based on hexagon far-field patterns with 60 degrees beam switching (i.e. in the far field the beam propagation direction is switched by 60 degrees). Since hexagon far-field patterns are challenging, we present here an approach for a linearly polarized spinor field that allows for a transistor-like (e.g., crucial for cascadability) orthogonal beam switching, i.e. in the far field the beam is switched by 90 degrees. We show that switching specifications such as amplification and speed can be adjusted using only optical means. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America