Models of coherent exciton condensation

Littlewood, P. B.; Eastham, P. R.; Keeling, Jonathan; Marchetti, F. M.; Simons, Benjamin D.; Szymańska, M. H.

doi:10.1088/0953-8984/16/35/003

Cited by 110 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…We choose not to survey systems where electrons and holes reside in the same layer, such as quantum wells in microcavities 21 . They are interesting in their own right but counterflow superconductivity therein is impossible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-temperature superfluidity with indirect excitons in van der Waals heterostructures

2014

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All known superfluid and superconducting states of condensed matter are enabled by composite bosons (atoms, molecules and Cooper pairs) made of an even number of fermions. Temperatures where such macroscopic quantum phenomena occur are limited by the lesser of the binding energy and the degeneracy temperature of the bosons. High-critical temperature cuprate superconductors set the present record of B100 K. Here we propose a design for artificially structured materials to rival this record. The main elements of the structure are two monolayers of a transition metal dichalcogenide separated by an atomically thin spacer. Electrons and holes generated in the system would accumulate in the opposite monolayers and form bosonic bound states-the indirect excitons. The resultant degenerate Bose gas of indirect excitons would exhibit macroscopic occupation of a quantum state and vanishing viscosity at high temperatures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-temperature superfluidity with indirect excitons in van der Waals heterostructures

2014

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Section: Spontaneous Coherence Of Excitonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This condensate is characterized by a strong coupling of excitons to the optical field and a short lifetime of the polaritons. Unlike BEC, equilibrium is not required for the polariton condensation and coherence in the polariton condensate forms due to a coherent optical field similar to coherence in lasers [14].There are intriguing theoretical predictions for a range of coherent states in cold exciton systems, including BEC [7], BCS-like condensation [8], charge-density-wave formation [15], and condensation with spontaneous timereversal symmetry breaking [16]. In these condensates, spontaneous coherence of exciton matter waves emerges below the temperature of quantum degeneracy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous coherence in a cold exciton gas

High¹,

Leonard²,

Hammack³

et al. 2012

Nature

286

307

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Excitons, bound pairs of electrons and holes, form a model system to explore the quantum physics of cold bosons in solids. Cold exciton gases can be realized in a system of indirect excitons, which can cool down below the temperature of quantum degeneracy due to their long lifetimes. Here, we report on the measurement of spontaneous coherence in a gas of indirect excitons. We found that extended spontaneous coherence of excitons emerges in the region of the macroscopically ordered exciton state and in the region of vortices of linear polarization. The coherence length in these regions is much larger than in a classical gas, indicating a coherent state with a much narrower than classical exciton distribution in momentum space, characteristic of a condensate. We also observed phase singularities in the coherent exciton gas. Extended spontaneous coherence and phase singularities emerge when the exciton gas is cooled below a few Kelvin. Spontaneous coherence of excitonsIf bosonic particles are cooled down below the temperature of quantum degeneracy they can spontaneously form a coherent state in which individual matter waves synchronize and combine. Spontaneous coherence of matter waves forms the basis for a number of fundamental phenomena in physics, including superconductivity, superfluidity, and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) [1][2][3][4][5]. Spontaneous coherence is the key characteristic of condensation in momentum space [6].Excitons are hydrogen-like bosons at low densities [7] and Cooper-pair-like bosons at high densities [8]. The bosonic nature of excitons allows for condensation in momentum space, i.e. emergence of spontaneous coherence. Designing semiconductor structures with required characteristics and controlling the parameters of the exciton system gives an opportunity to study various types of exciton condensates.A condensate of exciton-polaritons was recently realized in semiconductor microcavities [9][10][11][12][13]. This condensate is characterized by a strong coupling of excitons to the optical field and a short lifetime of the polaritons. Unlike BEC, equilibrium is not required for the polariton condensation and coherence in the polariton condensate forms due to a coherent optical field similar to coherence in lasers [14].There are intriguing theoretical predictions for a range of coherent states in cold exciton systems, including BEC [7], BCS-like condensation [8], charge-density-wave formation [15], and condensation with spontaneous timereversal symmetry breaking [16]. In these condensates, spontaneous coherence of exciton matter waves emerges below the temperature of quantum degeneracy.Since excitons are much lighter than atoms, quantum degeneracy can be achieved in excitonic systems at temperatures orders of magnitude higher than the microKelvin temperatures needed in atomic vapors [1, 2]. Exciton gases need be cooled down to a few Kelvin to enter the quantum regime. Although the temperature of the semiconductor crystal lattice T lat can be lowered well below 1 K in He-refrigerators, lower...

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“…Meanfield theories [15,16,17] give good qualitative and quantitative descriptions of these systems, comparing well to Monte Carlo simulations [18,19]. These mean-field approaches have also been extended to dipolar bosons [20] and boson-fermion atomic mixtures [21,22], as well as to the theory of exciton and exciton-polariton (electronhole pair plus photon) condensation [23]. We introduce a super-fluid order parameter, ψ = a i , and employ the decoupling approximation…”

mentioning

confidence: 91%

Quantum phase transitions of light

et al. 2006

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Recently, condensed matter and atomic experiments have reached a length-scale and temperature regime where new quantum collective phenomena emerge. Finding such physics in systems of photons, however, is problematic, as photons typically do not interact with each other and can be created or destroyed at will. Here, we introduce a physical system of photons that exhibits strongly correlated dynamics on a meso-scale. By adding photons to a two-dimensional array of coupled optical cavities each containing a single two-level atom in the photon-blockade regime, we form dressed states, or polaritons, that are both long-lived and strongly interacting. Our zero temperature results predict that this photonic system will undergo a characteristic Mott insulator (excitations localised on each site) to superfluid (excitations delocalised across the lattice) quantum phase transition. Each cavity's impressive photon out-coupling potential may lead to actual devices based on these quantum manybody effects, as well as observable, tunable quantum simulators.The Jaynes-Cummings [1] model is arguably the most important model for understanding light-matter interactions. It describes the interaction of a single, quasiresonant optical cavity field with a two-level atom. The coupling between the atom and the photons leads to optical nonlinearities and an effective photon-photon repulsion. Perhaps the most extreme demonstration of this photonic repulsion is photon blockade, demonstrated recently by Birnbaum et al. [2], where photonic repulsion prevents more than one photon from being in the cavity at any one time. Photon blockade was initially theoretically described with a four-state system [3], with multiplication of the weak Kerr nonlinearity effected by placing a large number of atoms within each cavity. However, it was quickly realised that the photonic blockade mechanism does not persist in the limit of many atoms [4], rapidly degrading as the number of atoms per cavity is increased [5]. Later Rebic et al. showed that the nonlinear interaction afforded by placing a single two-level atom inside a cavity would suffice for realising photon blockade [6]. This observation was highly significant as it allowed the full weight of the Jaynes-Cummings model to be used to attack and understand this problem.To create an atom-photon system whose dynamics mirror those traditionally associated with strongly interacting condensed matter systems, we consider a twodimensional array of photonic bandgap cavities. Each cavity contains a single two-level atom, quasi-resonant with the cavity mode. Evanescent coupling between the cavities due to their proximity allows inter-cavity photon hopping. This configuration is depicted schematically in Fig. 1(a), where we have explicitly chosen three nearest neighbours per cavity (coordination number z = 3), for reasons explained below. Because we are considering small cavities, with volumes of order λ 3 where λ is the wavelength of the light, there will be strong atom-photon couplings that will dominate over the...

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Models of coherent exciton condensation

Cited by 110 publications

References 74 publications

High-temperature superfluidity with indirect excitons in van der Waals heterostructures

High-temperature superfluidity with indirect excitons in van der Waals heterostructures

Spontaneous coherence in a cold exciton gas

Quantum phase transitions of light

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