Formation and all-optical control of optical patterns in semiconductor microcavities

Semiconductor microcavities offer a unique way to combine transient all-optical manipulation of GaAs quantum wells with the benefits of structural advantages of microcavities. In these systems, exciton-polaritons have dispersion relations with very small effective masses. This has enabled prominent effects, for example polaritonic Bose condensation, but it can also be exploited for the design of all-optical communication devices. The latter involves non-equilibrium phase transitions in the spatial arrangement of exciton-polaritons. We consider the case of optical pumping with normal incidence, yielding a spatially homogeneous distribution of exciton-polaritons in optical cavities containing the quantum wells. Exciton-exciton interactions can trigger instabilities if certain threshold behavior requirements are met. Such instabilities can lead, for example, to the spontaneous formation of hexagonal polariton lattices (corresponding to six-spot patterns in the far field), or to rolls (corresponding to two-spot far field patterns). The competition among these patterns can be controlled to a certain degree by applying control beams. In this paper, we summarize the theory of pattern formation and election in microcavities and illustrate the switching between patterns via simulation results.