A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter in which extensive collective coherence leads to intriguing macroscopic quantum phenomena. In crystalline semiconductor microcavities, bosonic quasiparticles, known as exciton-polaritons, can be created through strong coupling between bound electron-hole pairs and the photon field. Recently, a non-equilibrium BEC (ref. ) and superfluidity have been demonstrated in such structures. With organic crystals grown inside dielectric microcavities, signatures of polariton lasing have been observed. However, owing to the deleterious effects of disorder and material imperfection on the condensed phase, only crystalline materials of the highest quality have been used until now. Here we demonstrate non-equilibrium BEC of exciton-polaritons in a polymer-filled microcavity at room temperature. We observe thermalization of polaritons and, above a critical excitation density, clear evidence of condensation at zero in-plane momentum, namely nonlinear behaviour, blueshifted emission and long-range coherence. The key signatures distinguishing the behaviour from conventional photon lasing are presented. As no crystal growth is involved, our approach radically reduces the complexity of experiments to investigate BEC physics and paves the way for a new generation of opto-electronic devices, taking advantage of the processability and flexibility of polymers.

We show that strong lateral photon confinement in a vertical Fabry-Pérot microcavity can be achieved without sacrificing the quality factor Q or the need for pillar structures. A submicrometer Gaussian-shaped defect inserted between two distributed Bragg reflectors confines the photons on resonance in a small modal volume V on the order of (λ/n) 3 while maintaining a Q up to 10 5 . This design minimizes light scattering induced by lateral dielectric discontinuities, and therefore our simulations demonstrate that the Q/V is increased by nearly two orders of magnitude relative to cavities with an embedded mesa defect. We further discuss possible fabrication strategies for such devices, which are well suited for the study of cavity quantum electrodynamics with either organic or inorganic quantum emitters, and hold promise for the implementation of scalable quantum photonic networks.

We report on the realization of a solid state Fabry-Pérot-like microcavity that uses a small Gaussian-shaped deformation inside the cavity to achieve strong lateral photon confinement on the order of the wavelength. Cavities with a mode volume V < 0.4 μm3 and a quality factor Q > 1000 are fabricated by means of focused ion beam milling, removing the necessity for etched sidewalls as required for micropillar cavities. Perylene-diimide dye doped polystyrene was embedded in the microcavity and probed by time-resolved microphotoluminescence. A Purcell enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate by a factor of 3.5 has been observed at room temperature.

Optical detection and spectroscopy of single molecules has become an indispensable tool in biological imaging and sensing. Its success is based on fluorescence of organic dye molecules under carefully engineered laser illumination. In this paper we demonstrate optical detection of single molecules on a wide-field microscope with an illumination based on a commercially available, green light-emitting diode. The results are directly compared with laser illumination in the same experimental configuration. The setup and the limiting factors, such as light transfer to the sample, spectral filtering and the resulting signal-to-noise ratio are discussed. A theoretical and an experimental approach to estimate these parameters are presented. The results can be adapted to other single emitter and illumination schemes.

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