Evanescent quadrupole polariton

Abstract

In the work we demonstrate the formation of new type of polariton on the interface between a cuprous oxide slab and a polystyrene micro-sphere placed on the slab. The evanescent field of the resonant whispering gallery mode (WGM) has a substantial gradient, and therefore effectively couples with the quadrupole $1S$ excitons in cuprous oxide. This evanescent polariton has a long life-time ($1.7 ns$), which is determined only by its excitonic component. The polariton lower branch has a well pronounced minimum. This suggests that this excitation can be utilized for BEC. The spatial coherence of the polariton can be improved by assembling the micro-spheres in a linear chain.