Microcavities (Relié)

Microcavities are semiconductor, metal or dielectric structures providing optical confinement in one, two or three dimensions. At the end of the 20th century, microcavities have attracted considerable attention due to the discovery of a strong exciton-photon coupling regime allowing for formation of light-matter quasiparticles : exciton-polaritons. In `the new century, several remarkable effects have been discovered in microcavities, including the Bose-Einstein condensation of exciton-polaritons, polariton lasing, superfluidity, the optical spin Hall and spin Meissner effects, etc.
Currently, polariton devices exploiting the bosonic stimulation effects at room temperature are being developed by tens of laboratories across the world. The quest for quantum effects with polaritons is also quickly progressing. This book addresses the physics of microcavities : from classical to quantum optics, from a Boltzmann gas to a superfluid. It provides the theoretical background needed for understanding the complex phenomena in coupled light-matter systems, and it presents a broad overview of experimental progress in the physics of microcavities.