EXCITON-POLARITON DYNAMICS IN A GAAS BULK MICROCAVITY

We present a full analysis of exciton dynamics in a GaAs lambda/2 bulk microcavity following excitation by ultrafast laser pulses. Coherent dynamics was probed by means of an interferometric technique; beating and dephasing times were studied for various excitation intensities. A t high incident power, population effects begin to show up reducing ex citon oscillator strength and suppressing Rabi splitting. This feature produces marked non-linearities in the input-output characteristic of the optical functions, which were studied in view of reaching bistabl e operation. Theoretical calculations performed within the transfer-ma trix framework show good agreement with experimental results. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.