The relaxation bottleneck present in the dispersion relation of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities has prevented the realization of low threshold lasing based on exciton-polariton condensation. Here we show theoretically that the introduction of a cold electron gas into such structures induces efficient electron-polariton scattering. This process allows the condensation of the polaritons accumulated at the bottleneck to the final emitting state with a transition time of a few picoseconds, opening the way to a new generation of low-threshold light-emitting devices.

• Received 20 December 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.65.153310