60 research outputs found
Nontrivial phase coupling in polariton multiplets
P. G. L. and A. V. K. acknowledge EPSRC through Programme Grant on Hybrid Polaritonics EP/M025330/1 and EP/F026455/1 for co-supporting this work. N. G. B acknowledges financial support by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation 1425320 (Project DOI: RFMEFI58114X0006). Y. G. R. acknowledges financial support by CONACYT (Mexico) under Grant No. 251808.We investigate the phase coupling between spatially separated polariton condensates under nonresonant optical pulsed excitation. In the simple case of two condensates, we observe phase locking either in symmetric or antisymmetric states. We demonstrate that the coupling symmetry depends both on the separation distance and outflow velocity from the condensates. We interpret the observations through stimulated relaxation of polaritons to the phase configuration with the highest occupation. We derive an analytic criterion for the phase locking of a pair-polariton condensate and extend it to polariton multiplets. In the case of three condensates, we predict theoretically and observe experimentally either in-phase locking or the appearance of phase winding with phase differences of ±2π/3 between neighbors. The latter state corresponds to a vortex of winding number ±1 across the three polariton condensates.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Magneto-shear modes and a.c. dissipation in a two-dimensional Wigner crystal
The a.c. response of an unpinned and finite 2D Wigner crystal to electric
fields at an angular frequency has been calculated in the dissipative
limit, , where is the scattering rate. For
electrons screened by parallel electrodes, in zero magnetic field the
long-wavelength excitations are a diffusive longitudinal transmission line mode
and a diffusive shear mode. A magnetic field couples these modes together to
form two new magneto-shear modes. The dimensionless coupling parameter where and are the
speeds of transverse and longitudinal sound in the collisionless limit and
and are the tensor components of the
magnetoconductivity. For , both the coupled modes contribute
to the response of 2D electrons in a Corbino disk measurement of
magnetoconductivity. For , the electron crystal rotates rigidly in
a magnetic field. In general, both the amplitude and phase of the measured a.c.
currents are changed by the shear modulus. In principle, both the
magnetoconductivity and the shear modulus can be measured simultaneously.Comment: REVTeX, 7 pp., 4 eps figure
Vortices in polariton OPO superfluids
This chapter reviews the occurrence of quantised vortices in polariton
fluids, primarily when polaritons are driven in the optical parametric
oscillator (OPO) regime. We first review the OPO physics, together with both
its analytical and numerical modelling, the latter being necessary for the
description of finite size systems. Pattern formation is typical in systems
driven away from equilibrium. Similarly, we find that uniform OPO solutions can
be unstable to the spontaneous formation of quantised vortices. However,
metastable vortices can only be injected externally into an otherwise stable
symmetric state, and their persistence is due to the OPO superfluid properties.
We discuss how the currents charactering an OPO play a crucial role in the
occurrence and dynamics of both metastable and spontaneous vortices.Comment: 40 pages, 16 figure
Half-solitons in a polariton quantum fluid behave like magnetic monopoles
Monopoles are magnetic charges, point-like sources of magnetic field.
Contrary to electric charges they are absent in Maxwell's equations and have
never been observed as fundamental particles. Quantum fluids such as spinor
Bose-Einstein condensates have been predicted to show monopoles in the form of
excitations combining phase and spin topologies. Thanks to its unique spin
structure and the direct optical control of the fluid wavefunction, an ideal
system to experimentally explore this phenomenon is a condensate of
exciton-polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity. We use this system to create
half-solitons, non-linear excitations with mixed spin-phase geometry. By
tracking their trajectory, we demonstrate that half-solitons behave as
monopoles, magnetic charges accelerated along an effective magnetic field
present in the microcavity. The field-induced spatial separation of
half-solitons of opposite charges opens the way to the generation of magnetic
currents in a quantum fluid.Comment: 19 pages, includes Supplmentary Informatio
Direct measurement of instantaneous source speed for a HDR brachytherapy unit using an optical fiber based detector
Purpose: Several attempts to determine the transit time of a high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy unit have been reported in the literature with controversial results. The determination of the source speed is necessary to accurately calculate the transient dose in brachytherapy treatments. In these studies, only the average speed of the source was measured as a parameter for transit dose calculation, which does not account for the realistic movement of the source, and is therefore inaccurate for numerical simulations. The purpose of this work is to report the implementation and technical design of an optical fiber based detector to directly measure the instantaneous speed profile of a (192)Ir source in a Nucletron HDR brachytherapy unit. Methods: To accomplish this task, we have developed a setup that uses the Cerenkov light induced in optical fibers as a detection signal for the radiation source moving inside the HDR catheter. As the (192)Ir source travels between two optical fibers with known distance, the threshold of the induced signals are used to extract the transit time and thus the velocity. The high resolution of the detector enables the measurement of the transit time at short separation distance of the fibers, providing the instantaneous speed. Results: Accurate and high resolution speed profiles of the 192Ir radiation source traveling from the safe to the end of the catheter and between dwell positions are presented. The maximum and minimum velocities of the source were found to be 52.0 +/- 1.0 and 17.3 +/- 1:2 cm/s. The authors demonstrate that the radiation source follows a uniformly accelerated linear motion with acceleration of vertical bar a vertical bar = 113 cm/s(2). In addition, the authors compare the average speed measured using the optical fiber detector to those obtained in the literature, showing deviation up to 265%. Conclusions: To the best of the authors` knowledge, the authors directly measured for the first time the instantaneous speed profile of a radiation source in a HDR brachytherapy unit traveling from the unit safe to the end of the catheter and between interdwell distances. The method is feasible and accurate to implement on quality assurance tests and provides a unique database for efficient computational simulations of the transient dose. (C) 2010 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [DOI: 10.1118/1.3483780
Observation of half-quantum vortices in an exciton-polariton condensate
Singly quantized vortices have already been observed in many systems, including the superfluid helium, Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute atomic gases, and condensates of exciton-polaritons in the solid state. Two-dimensional superfluids carrying spin are expected to demonstrate a different type of elementary excitations referred to as half-quantum vortices, characterized by a {pi} rotation of the phase and a {pi} rotation of the polarization vector when circumventing the vortex core. We detect half-quantum vortices in an exciton-polariton condensate by means of polarization-resolved interferometry, real-space spectroscopy, and phase imaging. Half-quantum vortices coexist with single-quantum vortices in our sample
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