Rabi splitting enhancement in semiconductor microcavities

The physics of the two-level atom has been the basis of research in atomic physics for much of the past several decades. One of the great successes of semiconductor physics has been its capability to mimic the phenomena of other physical systems. Many of the discoveries in atomic physics have prompted studies of the coupling between two-level atom-like structures and photonic system in semiconductor physics. Much of that work has investigated the optics of the energy exchange between atom-like systems and the electromagnetic field mode of the enclosing cavity. Since many applications of microcavities are governed by the control of the spontaneous emission from the structure, command of the emission relies on control of the coupling between the photonic and the excitonic modes of the system.;When the energies of the interacting microcavity states are in resonance, the resulting degeneracy yields an energy split between the coincident modes. This energy split produces two branches of the resonant mixed states, which are called polaritons. The energy separation between the mixed state branches is called the vacuum Rabi splitting, Delta. The magnitude of the Rabi splitting is indicative of the coupling strength of the polariton modes. One of the major pursuits of this field has been to augment the control of the coupling strength between the cavity polariton modes. Comprehensive control over the polariton states, be it the modulation of the polariton energies or the suppression of one of the modes, is a key component in the development of microcavity devices.;The goal of my thesis research was to discover a simple means to achieve control over the coupling between the photonic and excitonic modes of a microcavity. This entailed the parametric tuning of the Rabi splitting between the coupled modes of the microcavity. Furthermore, we hoped to attain the maximum possible Rabi splitting observed in GaAs/AlxGa1- xAs microcavities with quantum oscillators located only within the cavity region.