@article{LaihoPresslSchlageretal.2016, author = {Laiho, K. and Pressl, B. and Schlager, A. and Suchomel, H. and Kamp, M. and H{\"o}fling, S. and Schneider, C. and Weihs, G.}, title = {Uncovering dispersion properties in semiconductor waveguides to study photon-pair generation}, series = {Nanotechnology}, volume = {27}, journal = {Nanotechnology}, number = {43}, doi = {10.1088/0957-4484/27/43/434003}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-187025}, pages = {434003}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We investigate the dispersion properties of ridge Bragg-reflection waveguides to deduce their phasematching characteristics. These are crucial for exploiting them as sources of parametric down-conversion (PDC). In order to estimate the phasematching bandwidth we first determine the group refractive indices of the interacting modes via Fabry-Perot experiments in two distant wavelength regions. Second, by measuring the spectra of the emitted PDC photons, we gain access to their group index dispersion. Our results offer a simple approach for determining the PDC process parameters in the spectral domain, and provide important feedback for designing such sources, especially in the broadband case.}, language = {en} } @article{EstrechoGaoBrodbecketal.2016, author = {Estrecho, E. and Gao, T. and Brodbeck, S. and Kamp, M. and Schneider, C. and H{\"o}fling, S. and Truscott, A. G. and Ostrovskaya, E. A.}, title = {Visualising Berry phase and diabolical points in a quantum exciton-polariton billiard}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {6}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, number = {37653}, doi = {10.1038/srep37653}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-167496}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Diabolical points (spectral degeneracies) can naturally occur in spectra of two-dimensional quantum systems and classical wave resonators due to simple symmetries. Geometric Berry phase is associated with these spectral degeneracies. Here, we demonstrate a diabolical point and the corresponding Berry phase in the spectrum of hybrid light-matter quasiparticles—exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities. It is well known that sufficiently strong optical pumping can drive exciton-polaritons to quantum degeneracy, whereby they form a macroscopically populated quantum coherent state similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate. By pumping a microcavity with a spatially structured light beam, we create a two-dimensional quantum billiard for the exciton-polariton condensate and demonstrate a diabolical point in the spectrum of the billiard eigenstates. The fully reconfigurable geometry of the potential walls controlled by the optical pump enables a striking experimental visualization of the Berry phase associated with the diabolical point. The Berry phase is observed and measured by direct imaging of the macroscopic exciton-polariton probability densities.}, language = {en} }