- Suárez-Forero, DG;
- Riminucci, F;
- Ardizzone, V;
- Karpowicz, N;
- Maggiolini, E;
- Macorini, G;
- Lerario, G;
- Todisco, F;
- De Giorgi, M;
- Dominici, L;
- Ballarini, D;
- Gigli, G;
- Lanotte, AS;
- West, K;
- Baldwin, K;
- Pfeiffer, L;
- Sanvitto, D
Exciton-polaritons are hybrid light-matter excitations arising from the nonperturbative coupling of a photonic mode and an excitonic resonance. Behaving as interacting photons, they show optical third-order nonlinearities providing effects such as optical parametric oscillation or amplification. It has been suggested that polariton-polariton interactions can be greatly enhanced by inducing aligned electric dipoles in their excitonic part. However, direct evidence of a true particle-particle interaction, such as superfluidity or parametric scattering, is still missing. In this Letter, we demonstrate that dipolar interactions can be used to enhance parametric effects such as self-phase modulation in waveguide polaritons. By quantifying these optical nonlinearities, we provide a reliable experimental measurement of the direct dipolar enhancement of polariton-polariton interactions.