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Connecting Theory and Practice in Optoelectronics
Integrated optical technologies for quantum computing based on linear optics have been under active development in the recent decade. However, the nonlinear optical interactions ‘on a chip’ offer new unexplored functionalities and may play a key role. Recently a new class of nonlinear system has emerged in which light and matter play equally important roles. The basic building blocks of these systems are quantum states of matter coupled to enhanced optical fields found in microstructures. One example is the microcavity exciton-polariton: a mixed light-matter quasiparticle, resulting from the strong coupling of quantum well (QW) excitons to cavity photons.
Microcavity exciton-polaritons have numerous advantages over bare photons and excitons. For instance, due to the excitonic component, they exhibit weaker diffraction and tighter localisation, and the strong interparticle interactions result in lower operational powers ~fJ/mm2 and faster switching speeds ~a few ps. Polariton waves can be confined in structures with sub-micron size, which opens up possibilities for fabrication of polaritonic integrated circuits based on structured semiconductor microcavities on a chip. Laterally etched microcavity wires  (Fig. 1a) enhance further the polaritonic nonlinearities and thus are a particularly promising integration platform due to broad transparency window, mature fabrication technology and the possibility of monolithic integration with semiconductor diode lasers and VCSELs. In this respect, new theories and numerical methods are needed to model the nonlinear polariton dynamics in non-planar microcavity wires.