Theory of Quantum Microcavity Polaritons

Microcavities are dielectric structures which trap electromagnetic fields in a very small region of space. When this field is made to interact with a semiconductor material, the excitations of the system are ’particles’ known as polaritons. Polaritons have many interesting properties; they undergo a condensation similar to a BEC, which shows behaviour analogous to a superfluid. In this project, we shall be looking at the quantum mechanical properties of the polariton condensate to investigate whether it can show interesting quantum optical behaviour such as squeezing. Although the project is theoretical, involving analytical and computational work, there is a strong experimental polariton activity in the department, providing plenty of opportunities to collaborate in developing quantum optical technologies. This project will suit a physics graduate with good mathematical abilities and some background in computational work.