All-optical flow control of a polariton condensate using nonresonant excitation

Abstract

The precise adjustment of the polariton condensate flow under incoherent excitation conditions is an indispensable prerequisite for polariton-based logic gate operations. In this report, an all-optical approach for steering the motion of a polariton condensate using only nonresonant excitation is demonstrated. We create arbitrarily shaped functional potentials by means of a spatial light modulator, which allow for tailoring the condensate state and guiding a propagating condensate along reconfigurable pathways. Additional numerical simulations confirm the experimental observations and elucidate the interaction effects between background carriers and polariton condensates.

Synchronization in optically trapped polariton Stuart-Landau networks

“…Because of their non-equilibrium nature, polaritons can diffuse away from their pumping spots, transforming their potential energy into kinetic energy. Such a flow of coherent polaritons [23][24][25], with tunable cavity in-plane momentum, then leads to interference and robust phase locking between spatially separated condensates [26][27][28][29][30].…”

A population-competition model for analyzing transverse optical patterns including optical control and structural anisotropy

“…We analyze this rich structure in detail and show that it provides a transparent and organized interpretation of competitions among various patterns built on the hexagonal state space.Beyond the primary instability of the spatially uniform state, the interplay among these wave-mixing processes gives rise to a variety of competing modulational patterns which may be regarded as optical analogs of perhaps more familiar patterns in macroscopic chemical, biological, and fluid dynamics systems [26][27][28][29]. Besides being fascinating nonlinear optical phenomena, the optical patterns can be conveniently controlled by weak optical probes and hence hold promise for applications in low-intensity optical switching [20,23,[30][31][32][33][34].We consider in this paper the pattern dynamics supported by the exciton-polariton field in a semiconductor quantum-well microcavity. Numerical simulations of these optical patterns, by directly solving the appropriate dynamical field equations, serve as the validating link between basic physical models and experiments.…”

“…It is therefore expected that our detailed analysis of the modelʼs multidimensional phase diagram in this paper will be useful for the study of other pattern-forming systems.Coherent dynamics of the polariton field in quantum well microcavities has been actively researched. Among other topics, strong parametric amplification of a probe by pumping at the 'magic angle' [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52], and the formation of polariton condensates and their dynamics [34,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] have been and are being studied. The optical effects of interactions among polaritons have been measured and analyzed in the weakly nonlinear (c ( ) 3 ) regime [60-64] and at higher densities [65].In the following sections, we first define the PC model and explain how the modelʼs variables/parameters are related to the physical processes in the microscopic polariton (exciton and photon) field model.…”

Formation and all-optical control of optical patterns in semiconductor microcavities

“…23 The feasibility of optical control holds implications for possible opto-electronic applications. 17,[24][25][26][27] Furthermore, patterns in quantum well microcavities also display interesting spin-dependent behaviors. 21,23,28 In this paper, we review the basic theory of pattern formation and competition in a microcavity structure (Section 2).…”