Exciton polaritons in quantum wells embedded in waveguides and microcavities

We study the interaction of quantum-well excitons with the electromagnetic eigenmodes of a planar dielectric waveguide or microcavity. By use of a closed expression for the photon Green's function, analytical results for the polariton dispersion relation in terms of the elements of the electromagnetic transfer matrix can be given. We solve the dispersion relation in a leaky waveguide and find qualitative agreement with the time-of-flight experiments of Ogawa et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 796 (1990)]. For a cavity with mirrors formed by quarter-wave layers we simplify the dispersion relation and recover the analytical results of Savona et al. [Solid State Commun. 93, 733 (1995)]. As an example of a more complicated mirror design we consider the experiment of Fisher el al. [Phys. Rev. B 51, 2600 (1995)] and find very good agreement with their temperature-dependent data. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America.