Room-Temperature Polariton Lasing in Semiconductor Microcavities

Abstract

We observe a room-temperature low-threshold transition to a coherent polariton state in bulk GaN microcavities in the strong-coupling regime. Nonresonant pulsed optical pumping produces rapid thermalization and yields a clear emission threshold of 1 mW, corresponding to an absorbed energy density of $29\mu \mathrm{J}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}$, 1 order of magnitude smaller than the best optically pumped (In,Ga)N quantum-well surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). Angular and spectrally resolved luminescence show that the polariton emission is beamed in the normal direction with an angular width of $\pm 5°$ and spatial size around $5\mu \mathrm{m}$.