Dressed atom versus exciton polariton: From Rabi oscillations to the Fermi Golden rule

Abstract

We rederive the dressed atom and the exciton polariton within the {\it same} framework to make clear that their difference only comes from the number of electrons available for photoexcitations. Using it, we analytically show how the time dependence of the photon number transforms from an oscillating behavior (at the stimulated or vacuum Rabi frequency) to an exponential decay (identical for atom and semiconductor) when the excited state lifetime decreases. Although the matter ground state is in both cases coupled by monochromatic photons {\it not to a continuum but to a discrete state}, this decay yet follows a kind of Fermi Golden rule. The energy conservation it contains, is however conceptually different.