Quantum fluids of light in all-optical scatterer lattices
Quantum fluids of light in all-optical scatterer lattices
One of the recently established paradigms in condensed matter physics is examining a system's behaviour in artificial potentials, giving insight into phenomena of quantum fluids in hard-to-reach settings. A prominent example is the matter-wave scatterer lattice, where high energy matter waves undergo transmission and reflection through narrow width barriers leading to stringent phase matching conditions with lattice band formation. In contrast to evanescently coupled lattice sites, the realisation of a scatterer lattice for macroscopic matter-wave fluids has remained elusive. Here, we implement a system of exciton-polariton condensates in a non-Hermitian Lieb lattice of scatterer potentials. By fine tuning the lattice parameters, we reveal a nonequilibrium phase transition between distinct regimes of polariton condensation: a scatterer lattice of gain guided polaritons condensing on the lattice potential maxima, and trapped polaritons condensing in the potential minima. Our results pave the way towards unexplored physics of non-Hermitian fluids in non-stationary mixtures of confined and freely expanding waves.
Artificial lattices, Light-matter interaction, Microcavity, Polariton, optical pumping, polariton condensate
Alyatkin, Sergey
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Sigurdsson, Helgi
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Askitopoulos, Alexis
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Toepfer, Julian, Dominic
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Lagoudakis, Pavlos
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22 September 2021
Alyatkin, Sergey
485bddd5-8eb7-4045-911b-86b0d401bdd4
Sigurdsson, Helgi
c6380293-fe97-4fd0-a819-cf35721d4e5d
Askitopoulos, Alexis
f5793606-9831-4b09-a148-7710fbe4d08b
Toepfer, Julian, Dominic
f3e89749-2912-4907-b712-6052b732dfb1
Lagoudakis, Pavlos
ea50c228-f006-4edf-8459-60015d961bbf
Alyatkin, Sergey, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Askitopoulos, Alexis, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic and Lagoudakis, Pavlos
(2021)
Quantum fluids of light in all-optical scatterer lattices.
Nature Communications, 12 (1), [5571].
(doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25845-4).
Abstract
One of the recently established paradigms in condensed matter physics is examining a system's behaviour in artificial potentials, giving insight into phenomena of quantum fluids in hard-to-reach settings. A prominent example is the matter-wave scatterer lattice, where high energy matter waves undergo transmission and reflection through narrow width barriers leading to stringent phase matching conditions with lattice band formation. In contrast to evanescently coupled lattice sites, the realisation of a scatterer lattice for macroscopic matter-wave fluids has remained elusive. Here, we implement a system of exciton-polariton condensates in a non-Hermitian Lieb lattice of scatterer potentials. By fine tuning the lattice parameters, we reveal a nonequilibrium phase transition between distinct regimes of polariton condensation: a scatterer lattice of gain guided polaritons condensing on the lattice potential maxima, and trapped polaritons condensing in the potential minima. Our results pave the way towards unexplored physics of non-Hermitian fluids in non-stationary mixtures of confined and freely expanding waves.
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Accepted/In Press date: 11 August 2021
Published date: 22 September 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We acknowledge the support of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant EP/M025330/1 on Hybrid Polaritonics). S.A. acknowledges the support of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) grant No. 21-72-00088. H.S. and P.G.L acknowledge support by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, through a FET Open research and innovation action under the grant agreement No. 899141 (PoLLoC).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Keywords:
Artificial lattices, Light-matter interaction, Microcavity, Polariton, optical pumping, polariton condensate
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 451768
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451768
ISSN: 2041-1723
PURE UUID: e2259fcd-4948-4e7a-bfb4-84a55300d009
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Date deposited: 26 Oct 2021 16:32
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 13:47
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Contributors
Author:
Sergey Alyatkin
Author:
Alexis Askitopoulos
Author:
Julian, Dominic Toepfer
Author:
Pavlos Lagoudakis
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