Phenomenological theory of bistability in polariton diodes

Polariton diodes have been recently shown to exhibit pronounced bistability induced by the control of the light-matter coupling via an external bias and optical pumping ��D. Bajoni, E. Semenova, A. Lemaître, S. Bouchoule, E. Wertz, P. Senellart, S. Barbay, R. Kuszelewicz, and J. Bloch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 266402 ��2008����. In the present paper, we detail the phenomenological theory developed to describe the observed hysteresis cycles and present additional experimental data confirming the validity of the present model.