Transition from Propagating Polariton Solitons to a Standing Wave Condensate Induced by Interactions

• Published in: Physical Review Letters
• Main Authors: Sich, M., Chana, J. K., Egorov, O. A., Sigurdsson, Helgi, Shelykh, Ivan, Skryabin, D. V., Walker, P. M., Clarke, E., Royall, B., Skolnick, M. S., Krizhanovskii, D. N.
• Other Authors: Raunvísindastofnun (HÍ), Science Institute (UI), Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society (APS) 2018
• Subjects: Exciton polariton; Nonlinear optics; Optical & microwave phenomena; Condensed Matter & Materials Physics; Eðlisfræði; Þéttefnisfræði; Örbylgjur; Skautun (rafsegulfræði); Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/804; https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.167402

We explore phase transitions of polariton wave packets, first, to a soliton and then to a standing wave polariton condensate in a multimode microwire system, mediated by nonlinear polariton interactions. At low excitation density, we observe ballistic propagation of the multimode polariton wave packets arising from the interference between different transverse modes. With increasing excitation density, the wave packets transform into single-mode bright solitons due to effects of both intermodal and intramodal polariton-polariton scattering. Further increase of the excitation density increases thermalization speed, leading to relaxation of the polariton density from a solitonic spectrum distribution in momentum space down to low momenta, with the resultant formation of a nonequilibrium condensate manifested by a standing wave pattern across the whole sample. M. S. and D. N. K. acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust Grant No. RPG-2013-339. M. S., J. K. C., P. M. W., B. R., M. S. S., and D. N. K. acknowledge the support from the EPSRC Grants No. EP/J007544/1 and No. EP/N031776/1 and the ERC Advanced Grant EXCIPOL 320570. D. V. S. acknowledges the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (16-52-150006) and the ITMO University Fellowship through the Government of Russia Grant No. 074-U01. H. S. and I. A. S. acknowledge the support by the Research Fund of the University of Iceland, The Icelandic Research Fund, Grant No. 163082-051 and the Project 3.2614.2017/4.6 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation. I. A. S., M. S. S., and D. N. K. Megagrant No. 14.Y26.31.0015 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation. We thank Marzena Szymańska for helpful discussions. Peer Reviewed