Electrical control of polariton coupling in intersubband microcavities

We demonstrate the external control of the coupling between the intersubband transition and the photonic mode of a GaAs/AlGaAs microcavity with multiple quantum wells embedded. By electrical gating, the charge density in the wells can be lowered, thereby quenching the intersubband polaritons and reverting the system to uncoupled excitations. The angle-dependent reflectance measurements are in good agreement with theoretical calculations performed in the transfer matrix formalism. The experiment shows the prospects offered by intersubband microcavities through manipulation of the system ground state. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.