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Collective fluid dynamics of a polariton condensate in a semiconductor microcavity

Nature volume 457, pages 291–295 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Semiconductor microcavities offer unique systems in which to investigate the physics of weakly interacting bosons. Their elementary excitations, polaritons—mixtures of excitons and photons—can accumulate in macroscopically degenerate states to form various types of condensate in a wide range of experimental configurations, under either incoherent1,2 or coherent3,4 excitation. Condensates of polaritons have been put forward as candidates for superfluidity5,6, and the formation of vortices7 as well as elementary excitations with linear dispersion8 are actively sought as evidence to support this. Here, using a coherent excitation triggered by a short optical pulse, we have created and set in motion a macroscopically degenerate state of polaritons that can be made to collide with a variety of defects present in the microcavity. Our experiments show striking manifestations of a coherent light–matter packet, travelling at high speed (of the order of one per cent of the speed of light) and displaying collective dynamics consistent with superfluidity, although one of a highly unusual character as it involves an out-of-equilibrium dissipative system. Our main results are the observation of a linear polariton dispersion accompanied by diffusionless motion; flow without resistance when crossing an obstacle; suppression of Rayleigh scattering; and splitting into two fluids when the size of the obstacle is comparable to the size of the wave packet. This work opens the way to the investigation of new phenomenology of out-of-equilibrium condensates.

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Figure 1: Experimental configuration of the TOPO.
Figure 2: Experimental and theoretical dispersions.
Figure 3: Free movement of a polariton droplet.
Figure 4: Simulation of the travelling signal polariton state within the pump spot.
Figure 5: Images of a polariton droplet colliding against native defects.

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Acknowledgements

We thank I. Carusotto, M. Wouters and N. Berloff for discussions and D. Steel for a critical reading of the manuscript. This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC) (MAT2005-01388, NAN2004-09109-C04-04 & QOIT-CSD2006-00019), the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (S-0505/ESP-0200) and the IMDEA-Nanociencia. D.B. and E.d.V. acknowledge a scholarship (Formacion de Profesorado Universitario) of the Spanish MEC. D.S. and M.D.M. thank the Ramón y Cajal Programme.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento Física de Materiales,,

    A. Amo, D. Sanvitto, D. Ballarini, M. D. Martin & L. Viña

  2. Departamento Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain,

    F. P. Laussy, E. del Valle & C. Tejedor

  3. LPN/CNRS, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France ,

    A. Lemaître & J. Bloch

  4. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK

    D. N. Krizhanovskii & M. S. Skolnick

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Correspondence to D. Sanvitto.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Figure

This file contains Supplementary Figure 1 with Legend (PDF 81 kb)

Supplementary Video 9

Supplementary Video 9 shows polaritons colliding with a large point defect in reciprocal space, corresponding to the images shown in Fig.5IIb. This is the k-space counterpart of Supplementary Video 8. (MOV 1006 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

Supplementary Video 1 shows appearance of the Rayleigh scattering circle in reciprocal space for a moving polariton droplet created with low pump power. (MOV 4768 kb)

Supplementary Video 2

Supplementary Video 2 shows polaritons, created with low pump power, getting trapped in a local defect. This is the real space counterpart of Supplementary Video 1. (MOV 3733 kb)

Supplementary Video 3

Supplementary Video 3 shows free polariton motion in real space, corresponding to the images shown in Fig.3a. (MOV 1007 kb)

Supplementary Video 4

Supplementary Video 4 shows free polariton motion in reciprocal space, corresponding to the images shown in Fig.3b. This is the k-space counterpart of Supplementary Video 3. (MOV 1089 kb)

Supplementary Video 5

Supplementary Video 5 shows simulation of a free polariton motion in real and k-space, corresponding to the image shown in Fig.4a (MOV 2273 kb)

Supplementary Video 6

Supplementary Video 6 shows polaritons colliding with a small point defect in real space, corresponding to the images shown in Fig.5Ia. (MOV 1698 kb)

Supplementary Video

Supplementary Video 7 shows polaritons colliding with a small point defect in reciprocal space, corresponding to the images shown in Fig.5Ib. This is the k-space counterpart of Supplementary Video 6. (MOV 793 kb)

Supplementary Video 8

Supplementary Video 8 shows polaritons colliding with a large point defect in real space, corresponding to the images shown in Fig.5IIa. (MOV 1572 kb)

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Amo, A., Sanvitto, D., Laussy, F. et al. Collective fluid dynamics of a polariton condensate in a semiconductor microcavity. Nature 457, 291–295 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07640

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