Exciton-Polariton Bose-Einstein Condensates

Exciton-polaritons, mixed light-matter quasiparticles in semiconductors, have recently shown evidence for Bose-Einstein condensation. Some of the properties of condensates of exciton-polaritons are reviewed in this article. We first discuss the spontaneous appearance of long-range order and the way this can be easily accessed in the case of polariton fluids. We show that the Penrose-Onsager criterion is valid even for such a very special case of condensate. We then describe the experiments that allow observation of topological defects in the fluid: quantized vortices, half vortices, and hyperbolic spin vortices. We demonstrate through the comparison with the gross Pitaevskii equation that the appearance and stability of such vortices are linked with the dissipative nature of the condensate together with the presence of disorder. We then briefly summarize the experiments on superfluid behavior of the polaritons at large-enough densities and expand somewhat more on the dynamical behavior of turbulence in the wake of an obstacle, with the appearance of vortex streets. We finally show that the Bogoliubov transformation has been revealed through four-wave mixing experiments

Comment on "Room Temperature Electrically Injected Polariton Laser"

In this Comment I challenge the main conclusions of Ref. [1]. The main reason for this Comment is the large number of questions on the details of the experiment that led me to request the raw data. I have obtained two sets of raw data. After a long discussion with the authors and the editors of PRL we decided that I should use the second set of data. Within the limited space of a Comment, I will only discuss here two of the published figures

Polariton interactions in semiconductor microcavities

In this review, we will try to summarize the results that we have obtained on the measurement of polariton interactions. We will describe here the samples, the experimental systems and some of the important results. We will also give a few highlights on the theoretical description of these results. One of the main topics of this review will be the observation of the Feshbach resonance for polaritons, and its interpretation through the coupling of two lower polaritons into a biexciton. (C) 2016 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved

On the condensation of polaritons

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), the "fifth state of matter," have in fact been discovered by chance both in liquid helium and in superconductors. Since these early encounters, BECs have been sought for, both in atom vapors and in solids. Here we report on the case of exciton polaritons. We discuss the experimental observation of macroscopically occupied polariton states and their possible attribution to a BEC. We also discuss the possible relation between a polariton condensate, a polariton laser, and a vertical surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Vortices, superfluidity, Bogoliubov dispersion, half-vortices, and Josephson oscillations are then briefly summarized merrily for sake of discussion of the distinction between a polariton BEC and a VCSEL. (C) 2012 Optical Society of Americ

Solid-state physics - Polaritronics in view

Polaritons are an odd cross-breed of a particle, half-matter, half-light. They could offer an abundant crop of new and improved optoelectronic devices — a promise already being fulfilled

Temporally resolved second-order photon correlations of exciton-polariton Bose-Einstein condensate formation

Second-order time correlation measurements with a temporal resolution better than 3 ps were performed on a CdTe microcavity where spontaneous Bose-Einstein condensation is observed. After the laser pulse, the nonresonantly excited thermal polariton population relaxes into a coherent polariton condensate. Photon statistics of the light emitted by the microcavity evidences a clear phase transition from the thermal state to a coherent state, which occurs within 3.2 ps after the onset of stimulated scattering. Following this very fast transition, we show that the emission possesses a very high coherence that persists for more than 100 ps after the build-up of the condensate.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Polariton quantum boxes in semiconductor microcavities

We report on the realization of polariton quantum boxes in a semiconductor microcavity under strong coupling regime. The quantum boxes consist of mesas that confine the cavity photon, etched on top of the spacer of a microcavity. For mesas with sizes of the order of a few micron in width and nm in depth, we observe quantization, caused by the lateral confinement, of the polariton modes in several peaks. We evidence the strong exciton-photon coupling regime through a typical/clear anticrossing curve for each quantized level. Moreover the growth technique is of high quality, which opens the way for the conception of new optoelectronic devices

Periodic squeezing in a polariton Josephson junction

The use of a Kerr nonlinearity to generate squeezed light is a well-known way to surpass the quantum noise limit along a given field quadrature. Nevertheless, in the most common regime of weak nonlinearity, a single Kerr resonator is unable to provide the proper interrelation between the field amplitude and squeezing required to induce a sizable deviation from Poissonian statistics. We demonstrate experimentally that weakly coupled bosonic modes allow exploration of the interplay between squeezing and displacement, which can give rise to strong deviations from the Poissonian statistics. In particular, we report on the periodic bunching in a Josephson junction formed by two coupled exciton-polariton modes. Quantum modeling traces the bunching back to the presence of quadrature squeezing. Our results, linking the light statistics to squeezing, are a precursor to the study of nonclassical features in semiconductor microcavities and other weakly nonlinear bosonic systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure