Resonant acousto-optics of microcavity polaritons

Abstract

We propose and analyze theoretically a resonant acousto-optic Stark effect for microcavity (MC) polaritons parametrically driven by a surface acoustic wave. For GaAs-based microcavities our scheme ``acoustic pumping - optical probing'' deals with surface acoustic waves of frequency $\nu_{\rm SAW} \simeq 0.5 - 3$ GHz and intensity $I_{\rm SAW} \simeq 0.1 - 10$ mW/mm. The acoustically-induced stop gaps in the MC polariton spectrum drastically change the optical response of MC polaritons. Because an acoustically pumped intrinsic semiconductor microcavity remains in its ground electronic state, no many-body effects screen and weaken the resonant acousto-optic Stark effect. In the meantime, this allows us to work out an exactly-solvable model for resonant acousto-optics of MC polaritons which deals with giant acousto-optical nonlinearities. Finally, we discuss possible applications of the proposed resonant acoustic Stark effect for optical modulation and switching and describe an acousto-optic device based on a (GaAs) microcavity driven by a surface acoustic wave.