Band gaps induced by vacuum photons in closed semiconductor cavities

We consider theoretically a closed (zero-dimensional) semiconductor microcavity where a confined vacuum photonic mode is coupled to electrons in the valence band of the semiconductor. It is shown that vacuum-induced virtual electron transitions between valence and conduction bands result in renormal...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kibis, O. V., Arnardottir, K. B., Shelykh, I. A.
Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/104258
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/24692
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:We consider theoretically a closed (zero-dimensional) semiconductor microcavity where a confined vacuum photonic mode is coupled to electrons in the valence band of the semiconductor. It is shown that vacuum-induced virtual electron transitions between valence and conduction bands result in renormalization of electron energy spectrum. As a consequence, vacuum-induced band gaps appear within the valence band. Calculated values of the band gaps are of sub-meV scale, which makes this QED effect measurable in state-of-the-art experiments.