Finite-difference time-domain analysis for the dynamics and diffraction of exciton-polaritons

We adopted a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme to simulate the dynamics and diffraction of exciton-polaritons, governed by the coupling of polarization waves with electromagnetic waves. The polarization wave, an approximate solution to the Schrödinger's equation at low frequencies, essentially captures the exciton behavior. Numerical stability of the scheme is analyzed and simple examples are provided to prove its validity. The system considered is both temporally and spatially dispersive, for which the FDTD analysis has attracted less attention in the literature. Here, we demonstrate that the FDTD scheme could be useful for studying the optical response of the exciton-polariton and its dynamics. The diffraction of a polariton wave from a polaritonic grating is also considered, and many sharp resonances are found, which manifest the interference effect of polariton waves. This illustrates that the measurement of transmittance or reflectance near polariton resonance can reveal subwavelength features in semiconductors, which are sensitive to polariton scattering.