Strong light-matter coupling at room temperature in simple geometry GaN microcavities grown on silicon

The reflectance spectra of simple design GaN-based microcavities have been studied in the 5 K-300 K range. The epitaxial structure consists of the silicon substrate and the stack of buffer layers as the back mirror, a GaN active layer, and a 100 angstrom thick aluminium layer as the top mirror. Active layer thicknesses of lambda/2, lambda, or 3 lambda/2 were investigated. The samples with GaN thicknesses lambda/2 and lambda display an anticrossing behavior between the cavity and exciton modes, with measured Rabi splittings of 47 and 60 meV, respectively, both at 5 K and room temperature. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.