Controlled exciton spontaneous emission in optical-microcavity-embedded quantum wells

A theory for polaritons and intrinsic spontaneous emission by excitons in quantum wells embedded in planar optical microcavities is presented. Excitons in ideal quantum wells are extended states, and the resulting spatial coherence leads to spontaneous-emission characteristics different from those for point dipoles in a planar cavity. It is pointed out that the quality factor Q of a planar cavity is typically strongly dependent upon the in-plane wave vector k&oarr; _|| of excitation; in particular, we demonstrate that both strongly enhanced emission (low Q) as well as strongly inhibited emission accompanied by vacuum-field Rabi oscillations (high Q) occur in the same cavity at different k&oarr;_||. Free-and localized-exciton radiative decay and radiation dynamics associated with confined and radiation modes of the optical field are considered, as well as the temperature dependence of the emission as measured in time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. Other results obtained are a two-dimensional form of the longitudinal-transverse splitting for and dispersion of exciton polaritons in the presence of a cavity