The field of spinoptronics is underpinned by good control over photonic spin-orbit coupling in devices that have strong optical nonlinearities. Such devices might hold the key to a new era of optoelectronics where momentum and polarization degrees of freedom of light are interwoven and interfaced with electronics. However, manipulating photons through electrical means is a daunting task given their charge neutrality. In this work, we present electrically tunable microcavity exciton-polariton resonances in a Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling field. We show that different spin-orbit coupling fields and the reduced cavity symmetry lead to tunable formation of the Berry curvature, the hallmark of quantum geometrical effects. For this, we have implemented an architecture of a photonic structure with a two-dimensional perovskite layer incorporated into a microcavity filled with nematic liquid crystal. Our work interfaces spinoptronic devices with electronics by combining electrical control over both the strong light-matter coupling conditions and artificial gauge fields.
Topological physics relies on Hamiltonian’s eigenstate singularities carrying topological charges, such as Dirac points, and – in non-Hermitian systems – exceptional points (EPs), lines or surfaces. So far, the reported non-Hermitian topological transitions were related to the creation of a pair of EPs connected by a Fermi arc out of a single Dirac point by increasing non-Hermiticity. Such EPs can annihilate by reducing non-Hermiticity. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that an increase of non-Hermiticity can lead to the annihilation of EPs issued from different Dirac points (valleys). The studied platform is a liquid crystal microcavity with voltage-controlled birefringence and TE-TM photonic spin-orbit-coupling. Non-Hermiticity is provided by polarization-dependent losses. By increasing the non-Hermiticity degree, we control the position of the EPs. After the intervalley annihilation, the system becomes free of any band singularity. Our results open the field of non-Hermitian valley-physics and illustrate connections between Hermitian topology and non-Hermitian phase transitions.
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