We report on the realization of an out-of-equilibrium polariton condensate under pulsed excitation in a one-dimensional geometry. We observe macroscopic occupation of a polaritonic mode with only 3% photonic fraction, and a nature strikingly close to that of a bare exciton condensate. With the help of this tiny photonic fraction, the condensate is found to display first-order coherence over distances as large as 10 microns. Based on a driven-dissipative mean field model, we find that the correlations length is limited by the effects of a shallow disorder under non-equilibrium conditions.

Using angle-resolved Raman spectroscopy, we show that a resonantly excited ground-state excitonpolariton fluid behaves like a nonequilibrium coolant for its host solid-state semiconductor microcavity. With this optical technique, we obtain a detailed measurement of the thermal fluxes generated by the pumped polaritons. We thus find a maximum cooling power for a cryostat temperature of 50 K and below where optical cooling is usually suppressed, and we identify the participation of an ultrafast cooling mechanism. We also show that the nonequilibrium character of polaritons constitutes an unexpected resource: each scattering event can remove more heat from the solid than would be normally allowed using a thermal fluid with normal internal equilibration.