The road towards polaritonic devices

Polaritons are quasiparticles that form in semiconductors when an elementary excitation such as an exciton or a phonon interacts sufficiently strongly with light. In particular, exciton–polaritons have attracted tremendous attention for their unique properties, spanning from an ability to undergo ultra-efficient four-wave mixing to superfluidity in the condensed state. These quasiparticles possess strong intrinsic nonlinearities, while keeping most characteristics of the underlying photons. Here we review the most important features of exciton–polaritons in microcavities, with a particular emphasis on the emerging technological applications, the use of new materials for room-temperature operation, and the possibility of exploiting polaritons for quantum computation and simulation.