Paulo V. Santos
Coherent acoustic phonons in the form of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) propagating on a semiconductor surface create a moving elastic and piezoelectric modulation of the underlying material. In this talk, I show that this dynamic modulation gives rise to new elasto- and electro-optic interaction mechanisms in GaAs-based nanostructures, which can be used for the modulation and coherent transport of elementary excitations in nanostructures. Examples will be given for the formation of tunable polaritonic crystals under the acoustic modulation of semiconductor microcavities as well as for the acoustic transport and manipulation of carriers, with applications for single-photon detections and emitters.