Polariton lasing in a hybrid bulk ZnO microcavity

We demonstrate polariton lasing in a bulk ZnO planar microcavity under non-resonant optical pumping at a small negative detuning (delta similar to -1/6 the 130 meV vacuum Rabi splitting) and a temperature of 120 K. The strong coupling regime is maintained at lasing threshold since the coherent nonlinear emission from the lower polariton branch occurs at zero in-plane wavevector well below the uncoupled cavity mode. The contribution of multiple localized polariton modes above threshold and the non-thermal polariton statistics show that the system is in a far-from-equilibrium regime, likely related to the moderate photon lifetime and in-plane photonic disorder in the cavity. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3650268]