One dimensional confinement of microcavity polaritons using non-piezoelectric surface acoustic waves

We demonstrate the manipulation of microcavity polaritons using tunable one-dimensional potentials formed by non-piezoelectric surface acoustic waves (SAWs). We compare the modulation of polaritons by piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric SAWs and show that the latter outperform the former for high acoustic powers. We directly show the formation of mini-Brillouin zones due to the lateral modulation with the periodicity of the SAW as well as the flattening of the lowest dispersion curve due to polariton confinement, showing the formation of polariton wires.