Parametric oscillation in semiconductor microcavities: Nonlinear and quantum effects

We report the observation of optical bistability in a semiconductor microcavity pumped at the "magic angle" above the parametric oscillation threshold. Experimental evidence is given in the form of a hysteresis cycle of the nonlinear emission as a function of the pump intensity. A model analogous to those developped for triply resonant Optical Parametric Oscillators (OPO) is in good agreement with the experimental findings. In the second part, we study the potential application of the parametric oscillation regime to quantum optics. The quantum correlations between the emitted "signal" and "idler" beams are computed. We show that very strong quantum correlations between the signal and idler polaritons can be achieved. However the quantum effects in the outgoing light fields are strongly reduced due to the large mismatch in the coupling of the signal and idler polaritons to the external photons.