In physics, polaritons /pəˈlærɪtɒnz, p-/[1] are bosonic quasiparticles resulting from strong coupling of electromagnetic waves (photon) with an electric or magnetic dipole-carrying excitation (state) of solid or liquid matter (such as a phonon, plasmon, or an exciton).[example needed] Polaritons describe the crossing of the dispersion of light with any interacting resonance.

Dispersion relation of phonon polaritons in GaP. Red curves are the uncoupled phonon and photon dispersion relations, black curves are the result of coupling (from top to bottom: upper polariton, LO phonon, lower polariton).

They are an expression of level repulsion (quantum phenomenon), also known as the avoided crossing principle. To this extent polaritons can be thought of as the new normal modes of a given material or structure arising from the strong coupling of the bare modes, which are the photon and the dipolar oscillation. Bosonic quasiparticles are distinct from polarons (fermionic quasiparticle), which is an electron plus an attached phonon cloud.

Polaritons violate the weak coupling limit and the associated photons do not propagate freely in crystals. Instead, propagation speed depends strongly on the frequency of the photon.

Significant experimental results on various aspects of exciton-polaritons have been gained in the case of copper(I) oxide.

History

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Oscillations in ionized gases were observed by Lewi Tonks and Irving Langmuir in 1929.[2] Polaritons were first considered theoretically by Kirill Borisovich Tolpygo.[3][4] They were termed light-excitons in Soviet scientific literature. That name was suggested by Solomon Isaakovich Pekar, but the term polariton, proposed by John Hopfield, was adopted.

Coupled states of electromagnetic waves and phonons in ionic crystals and their dispersion relation, now known as phonon polaritons, were obtained by Kirill Tolpygo in 1950[3][4] and independently by Huang Kun in 1951.[5][6] Collective interactions were published by David Pines and David Bohm in 1952, and plasmons were described in silver by Herbert Fröhlich and H. Pelzer in 1955.

R.H Ritchie predicted surface plasmons in 1957, then Ritchie and H.B. Eldridge published experiments and predictions of emitted photons from irradiated metal foils in 1962. Otto first published on surface plasmon-polaritons in 1968.[7] Room-temperature superfluidity of polaritons was observed in 2016 by Giovanni Lerario et al., at CNR NANOTEC Institute of Nanotechnology, using an organic microcavity supporting stable Frenkel exciton-polaritons at room temperature.[8]

In 2018, scientists reported the discovery of a new three-photon form of light, which may involve polaritons and could be useful in quantum computers.[9][10]

In 2024 researchers reported ultrastrong coupling of the PEPI layer in a Fabry-Pérot microcavity consisting of two partially reflective mirrors. The PEPI layer is a two-dimensional perovskite made of (PEA)2PbI4 (phenethylammonium lead iodide). Placing a PEPI layer within a Fabry-Pérot microcavity forms polaritons and allows control of exciton-exciton annihilation, increasing solar cell efficiency and ED intensity.[11]

Types

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A polariton is the result of the combination of a photon with a polar excitation in a material. The following are types of polaritons:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Polariton". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2021-01-17.
  2. ^ Tonks, Lewi; Langmuir, Irving (1929-02-01). "Oscillations in Ionized Gases". Physical Review. 33 (2): 195–210. Bibcode:1929PhRv...33..195T. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.33.195. PMC 1085653.
  3. ^ a b Tolpygo, K.B. (1950). "Physical properties of a rock salt lattice made up of deformable ions". Zhurnal Eksperimentalnoi I Teoreticheskoi Fiziki (J. Exp. Theor. Phys.). 20 (6): 497–509, in Russian.
  4. ^ a b K.B. Tolpygo, "Physical properties of a rock salt lattice made up of deformable ions", Zh. Eks.Teor. Fiz. vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 497–509 (1950), English translation: Ukrainian Journal of Physics, vol. 53, special issue (2008); "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-10-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ Huang, Kun (1951). "Lattice vibrations and optical waves in ionic crystals". Nature. 167 (4254): 779–780. Bibcode:1951Natur.167..779H. doi:10.1038/167779b0. S2CID 30926099.
  6. ^ Huang, Kun (1951). "On the interaction between the radiation field and ionic crystals". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. A. 208 (1094): 352–365. Bibcode:1951RSPSA.208..352H. doi:10.1098/rspa.1951.0166. S2CID 97746500.
  7. ^ Otto, A. (1968). "Excitation of nonradiative surface plasma waves in silver by the method of frustrated total reflection". Z. Phys. 216 (4): 398–410. Bibcode:1968ZPhy..216..398O. doi:10.1007/BF01391532. S2CID 119934323.
  8. ^ Lerario, Giovanni; Fieramosca, Antonio; Barachati, Fábio; Ballarini, Dario; Daskalakis, Konstantinos S.; Dominici, Lorenzo; De Giorgi, Milena; Maier, Stefan A.; Gigli, Giuseppe; Kéna-Cohen, Stéphane; Sanvitto, Daniele (2017). "Room-temperature superfluidity in a polariton condensate". Nature Physics. 13 (9): 837–841. arXiv:1609.03153. Bibcode:2017NatPh..13..837L. doi:10.1038/nphys4147. S2CID 119298251.
  9. ^ Hignett, Katherine (16 February 2018). "Physics Creates New Form Of Light That Could Drive The Quantum Computing Revolution". Newsweek. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  10. ^ Liang, Qi-Yu; et al. (16 February 2018). "Observation of three-photon bound states in a quantum nonlinear medium". Science. 359 (6377): 783–786. arXiv:1709.01478. Bibcode:2018Sci...359..783L. doi:10.1126/science.aao7293. PMC 6467536. PMID 29449489.
  11. ^ Daugherty, Justin (2024-08-09). "Stronger Together: Coupling Excitons to Polaritons for Better Solar Cells & Higher Intensity LEDs". CleanTechnica. US Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
  12. ^ Fox, Mark (2010). Optical Properties of Solids (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0199573370.
  13. ^ Eradat, N.; et al. (2002). "Evidence for braggoriton excitations in opal photonic crystals infiltrated with highly polarizable dyes". Appl. Phys. Lett. 80 (19): 3491. arXiv:cond-mat/0105205. Bibcode:2002ApPhL..80.3491E. doi:10.1063/1.1479197. S2CID 119077076.
  14. ^ Yuen-Zhou, Joel; Saikin, Semion K.; Zhu, Tony; Onbasli, Mehmet C.; Ross, Caroline A.; Bulovic, Vladimir; Baldo, Marc A. (2016-06-09). "Plexciton Dirac points and topological modes". Nature Communications. 7: 11783. arXiv:1509.03687. Bibcode:2016NatCo...711783Y. doi:10.1038/ncomms11783. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 4906226. PMID 27278258.
  15. ^ Kauch, A.; et al. (2020). "Generic Optical Excitations of Correlated Systems: pi-tons". Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (4): 047401. arXiv:1902.09342. Bibcode:2020PhRvL.124d7401K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.047401. PMID 32058776. S2CID 119215630.
  16. ^ Klingshirn, Claus F. (2012-07-06). Semiconductor Optics (4 ed.). Springer. p. 105. ISBN 978-364228362-8.

Further reading

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