Abstract

Recent observations of vacuum-field Rabi splittings (VRS) in strongly coupled semiconductor microcavities^1-4 have generated considerable interest in the dynamics of microcavity exciton-polaritons. We have previously reported on the dynamics of timedomain vacuum Rabí oscillations in the low- excitation regime,² in which the VRS is independent of incident light intensity. As the light intensity is increased, however, we may expect two different nonlinear responses: First, higher-lying states of the Jaynes-Cummings ladder might be observable. Second, at high intensities phasespace filling and Coulomb screening of the exciton states result in a reduced oscillator strength that leads to a reduced VRS. The Al_tGa., As-based five-quantum- well microcavity sample used in this work is the same as that used for our previous publications, showing 6-meV VRS at 10 K in the low-excitation regime.¹

© 1995 Optical Society of America