Dark State Concentration Dependent Emission and Dynamics of CdSe Nanoplatelet Exciton-Polaritons

The recent surge of interest in polaritons has prompted fundamental questions about the role of dark states in strong light-matter coupling phenomena. Here, we systematically vary the relative number of dark states by controlling the number of stacked CdSe nanoplatelets confined in a Fabry–Pérot cavity. We find the emission spectrum to change significantly with an increasing number of nanoplatelets, with a gradual shift of the dominant emission intensity from the lower polariton branch to a manifold of dark states. Through accompanying calculations based on a kinetic model, this shift is rationalized by an entropic trapping of excitations by the dark state manifold, while a weak dark state dispersion due to local disorder explains their nonzero emission. Our results point toward the relevance of the dark state concentration to the optical and dynamical properties of cavity-embedded quantum emitters with ramifications for Bose–Einstein condensate formation, polariton lasing, polariton-based quantum transduction schemes, and polariton chemistry.