Bénard–von Kármán vortex street in an exciton-polariton superfluid

Abstract

The dynamics of an exciton-polariton superfluid resonantly injected into a semiconductor microcavity are investigated numerically. The results reveal that a Bénard-von Kármán vortex street is generated in the wake behind an obstacle potential, in addition to the generation of quantized vortex dipoles and dark solitons. The vortex street is shown to be robust against a disorder potential in a sample and it can be observed even in time-integrated measurements.

Dissipationless Flow and Sharp Threshold of a Polariton Condensate with Long Lifetime

“…As seen in Fig. 4, the coherent polariton-wave tunneling passing around the exciton cloud barrier, giving a high-momentum tail, also has fringes; these fringes may be associated with vortex streets [34,35].…”

Dark solitons and vortices in the intrinsic bistability regime in exciton polariton condensates

“…The latter mechanism underlines similarities of polariton dynamics in microcavities with hydrodynamics of super-fluids [35]. The analogy has been further developed in the recent theoretical and experimental studies of hydrodynamical properties of vortices and dark solitons in polariton condensates [36][37][38][39]. Despite the above analogies with hydrodynamics and optics, polariton solitons and vortices have an important distinctive feature: they are inherently two-component states, and the effective masses of the photonic and excitonic components differ by many orders of magnitude.…”

Self-rotation and synchronization in exciton-polariton condensates

“…24,25. The Bénard-von Kármán vortex street in an exciton-polariton superfluid 26 can also be regarded as self-oscillation.…”