Nonadiabatic dynamics of the electromagnetic field and charge carriers in high-Q photonic crystal resonators

We address, both experimentally and theoretically, phase and amplitude dynamics of the electromagnetic field in a two-dimensional photonic crystal when femtosecond pulses are injected. We demonstrate that the usual adiabatic approximation underlying the dynamics of field and carriers in a semiconductor resonator is no longer valid, since in general the photon lifetime cannot be neglected with respect to the carrier recombination lifetime. Parameter regions where adiabaticity is broken are shown, and the ubiquity of the observed dynamical scenario in the new generation of active photonic microresonators is predicted.