Control of polariton scattering in resonant-tunneling double-quantum-well semiconductor microcavities

Electronic control of ultrafast optical amplification is achieved in specially designed semiconductor micro-cavities with double quantum well. The gain from parametric scattering of polaritons is selectively quenched by tuning the intracavity electric field to turn on and off interwell resonant tunneling. A > 90% reduction in optical gain is observed with only 100 mV change in applied bias. The strong exciton-photon coupling regime leads here to competition between the rate of Rabi coupling and of electronic tunneling between adjacent quantum wells.