Photon-field-shape effects on Rabi splitting energies in CuCl microcavities

We have investigated the photon-field-shape effects on Rabi splitting energies in CuCl microcavities with HfO 2 /SiO 2 distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The CuCl active layer was prepared by vacuum deposition, while HfO 2 and SiO 2 layers were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering. The photon-field shape was tuned to a node-type or an antinode-type by changing the order of the refractive indices in the DBR. In order to control of the Rabi splitting energies, the active-layer thickness was changed from λ/12 to 9λ/20. In angle-resolved reflectance spectra at 10 K, three cavity polaritons resulting from the strong coupling between the Z 3 and Z 1,2 excitons and cavity photon were clearly detected. We estimated the energies of the exciton-photon interaction, the so-called vacuum Rabi splitting energies, from the analysis of the cavity polariton dispersions using a phenomenological Hamiltonian for the strong exciton-photon coupling. The active-layer-thickness dependence of the Rabi splitting energies are explained by a semi-quantitative analysis taking account of the overlap between the exciton and photon-field wave functions. We have demonstrated that the photon-field shape drastically affects the active-layer-thickness dependence of the Rabi splitting energies. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013