Near-room-temperature zero-dimensional polariton lasers with sub-10 GHz linewidths

Abstract

Narrow and brilliant spectral lines are essential assets for high-resolution spectroscopy as well as for precision sensing and optomechanics. In semiconductor structures and, in particular, in the well-established (Al,Ga)As material system, strong emission lines with nanosecond coherence times can be provided by the opto-electronic resonances of microcavity exciton-polariton condensates. The temporal coherence of these resonances, however, normally rapidly deteriorates as the temperature increases beyond a few tens of kelvins due to exciton dissociation. Here, we demonstrate that the temperature stability of polariton condensates in (Al,Ga)As can be significantly improved by confinement within micrometer-sized intracavity traps. We show that trapped condensates can survive up to ~200 K while maintaining a light-matter character with decoherence rates below 10 GHz (i.e., $< 40 {\mu}$eV linewidths). These linewidths are by an order of magnitude smaller than those so far reported for other solid-state systems at these temperatures. Confinement thus provides a pathway towards room-temperature polariton condensation using the well-established (Al,Ga)As material system with prospects for application in scalable on-chip photonic devices for optical processing, sensing, and computing.