Hyperbolic Metamaterials with Bragg Polaritons

Phys Rev Lett. 2015 Jun 12;114(23):237402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.237402. Epub 2015 Jun 10.

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism for designing quantum hyperbolic metamaterials with the use of semiconductor Bragg mirrors containing periodically arranged quantum wells. The hyperbolic dispersion of exciton-polariton modes is realized near the top of the first allowed photonic miniband in such a structure which leads to the formation of exciton-polariton X waves. Exciton-light coupling provides a resonant nonlinearity which leads to nontrivial topologic solutions. We predict the formation of low amplitude spatially localized oscillatory structures: oscillons described by kink shaped solutions of the effective Ginzburg-Landau-Higgs equation. The oscillons have direct analogies in gravitational theory. We discuss implementation of exciton-polariton Higgs fields for the Schrödinger cat state generation.