Exciton-polaritons are bosonic quasi-particles generated through the strong coupling of optical excitations in a semiconductor with a resonant mode of a microcavity. While the exciton-polaritons enable manifestation of collective quantum phenomena, the emergence of coherent dynamics of polaritons essential to drive such processes is dependent on their nonlinear many-body interactions. Here we will discuss the dynamics of such interactions measured through nonlinear optical probes based on ultrashort optical pulses in strongly-coupled microcavities made of organic molecules and those that are based on two-dimensional metal halides. In addition, we present an alternative methodology reliant on spectrally entangled biphoton states as a probe of such many-body dynamics.
Microcavity exciton-polaritons are bosonic quasiparticles that result from the hybridization of excitons and modes of a confined electromagnetic field in a regime known as strong light-matter coupling. Having a low effective mass, polaritons can undergo condensation, the macroscopic occupation of the lowest energy and momentum state. Two-dimensional (2D) perovskites are promising candidates for polariton condensation due to their high exciton binding energies, low non-radiative recombination rates and strong oscillator strengths. However, despite their optimal optoelectronic properties, there are no reports of room temperature polariton condensation in 2D perovskites and only one unreproduced report at low temperature. In this study, we systematically examine the interplay between the emission from the exciton reservoir and the population of the lower polariton. We gain insights on how the spectral features of the emission of 2D perovskites affect polariton relaxation and onto one of the mechanisms making polariton condensation challenging in 2D perovskites.
We introduce an experimental methodology based on spectrally entangled biphoton states as a probe of many-body dynamics in materials. To that end, we present an experimental technique based on the Fourier transform spectroscopy to reliably estimate the spectral correlations between the entangled photons. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we transmit the biphoton state through a strongly coupled microcavity and reliably measure and analyze the variations in the spectral correlations between the photons.
Coherent nonlinear spectroscopy offers us a window into the system-bath interactions in materials. Specifically, the spectral lineshapes can reveal the nature and dynamics of the environmental fluctuations surrounding the system of interest. Here we will discuss how stochastic non-equilibrium exciton dynamics manifest in the peculiar lineshapes and how they provide mechanistic insights into the nature of exciton-phonon and exciton-exciton interactions in nanostructured derivatives of metal halide perovskites. Despite the success of such classical optical probes in unveiling the many-body physics in materials, we will elaborate on the ambiguities still present in the resultant photophysical models that stem primarily due to the high excitation intensities used in the measurements. We will also discuss alternative experimental methodologies based on quantum entangled photons, which may offer superior signal to noise ratio and thus enabling the measurement of many-body interactions at close to single photon excitation densities.
Excitons --- Coulomb-bound electron-hole pairs --- are the primary photo-excitations in two dimensional Ruddlesden Popper metal halides (RPMH). Spectral signatures of these quasi-particles manifest in the optical spectra as well-defined resonances separated by a characteristic energy. Here, we use these distinct excitonic resonances and their coherent dynamics as a spectroscopic probe of the unique characteristics of these excitations. We observe that the spectroscopic observables reflect the peculiar interactions of excitons with the anharmonic RPMH lattice that can be contextualized within the “exciton-polaron” framework. Unlike conventional 2D Wannier exitons, we consider that the electron-hole pairs in RPMHs intrinsically carry the lattice dressing, which we measure using impulsive vibrational spectroscopy. Moreover, we observe that there are multiple excitons that are dressed distinctly by the lattice phonons. We measure the intrinsic and density-dependent exciton dephasing rates of these multiple excitons and their dependence on temperature by means of two-dimensional coherent excitation spectroscopy. We find that diverse excitons display distinct intrinsic dephasing rates mediated by phonon scattering involving different effective phonons and contrasting rates of exciton-exciton elastic scattering. These findings establish specifically the consequence of anharmonic lattice interactions on the exciton many-body quantum dynamics, which critically define fundamental optical properties that underpin photonics and quantum optoelectronics. We further explore the origin of the plurality of excitons in RPMHs by systematic investigation of other materials variants obtained via substitution of either the organic cation or the metal cation. We find that a complex electronic structure with multiple carrier bands emerges, which may be responsible for the distinct excitons. Such an electronic structure originates from variations in coordination geometries of the metal halide octahedra induced by subtle changes in the organic-inorganic interactions, with measurable consequences on the exciton polaron characteristics.
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