Intensity spiral patterns in a semiconductor microresonator
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, 38116 Braunschweig (Germany)
- Institut fuer Festkoerpertheorie und Theoretische Optik, Friedrich-Schiller Universitaet, Max-Wien-Platz 1, Jena, D-07743 (Germany)
- Departamento Optica, Facultad de C.C. Fisicas, Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid (Spain)
- Departament D'Optica, Universitat de Valencia, Valencia (Spain)
Spiral waves appear frequently in nature. They have been studied, e.g., in hydrodynamic systems, chemical reactions, and in a large variety of biological and physical systems [Grill et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3368 (1995); Goryachev and Kapral, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1619 (1996)]. In contrast to chemical and hydrodynamic processes where the field amplitude exhibits the spiral patterns (intensity spirals), in optics the spiral structures relate generally to the phase structure of the optical field (so-called 'optical vortices' [Lugiato et al., Adv. At., Mol., Opt. Phys. 40, 229 (1999); Arecchi et al., Phys. Rep. 318, 1 (1999); Weiss et al., Appl. Phys. B:Lasers Opt. B68, 151 (1999)]). Thus the question arises whether amplitude spiral patterns can exist also in optics. In [Lodahl et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4506 (2000)] the existence of such spiral patterns in optics was theoretically predicted. Experimentally, intensity spiral patterns were shown to exist in an optical feedback system with radially symmetric excitation intensity [Huneus et al., Appl. Phys. B:Lasers Opt. B76, 191 (2000)]. We show here that such spiral patterns occur in a widely studied system, the semiconductor microcavity. The pattern formation is influenced here by the phase- as well as the intensity structure of the exciting light field.
- OSTI ID:
- 20718633
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 72; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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