<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi mathvariant="italic">Zitterbewegung</mml:mi></mml:math>
 of exciton-polaritons

Although zitterbewegung -the jittery motion of relativistic particles -is known since 1930 and was predicted in solid state systems long ago, it has been directly measured so far only in so-called quantum simulators, i.e. quantum systems under strong control such as trapped ions and Bose-Einstein condensates. A reason for the lack of further experimental evidence is the transient nature of wave packet zitterbewegung. Here we study how the jittery motion can be manipulated in Dirac systems via time-dependent potentials, with the goal of slowing down/preventing its decay, or of generating its revival. For the harmonic driving of a mass term, we find persistent zitterbewegung modes in pristine, i.e. scattering free, systems. Furthermore, an effective time-reversal protocolthe "Dirac quantum time mirror" -is shown to retrieve zitterbewegung through echoes.

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“…Calculations are done for a single k-mode, since the collective wave packet ZB is given by the weighted superposition from Eq. (12).…”

Section: Rotating Wave Approximation (Rwa)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ZB in systems with lowenergy effective Dirac-like dispersion was later proposed for carbon nanotubes [7], graphene [8,9] and topological insulators [10]. Recently, ZB was further predicted for magnons [11] and exciton-polaritons [12]. ZB signatures can also be found in the presence of magnetic fields, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Steering Zitterbewegung in driven Dirac systems: From persistent modes to echoes

2020

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“…[15] in which SOI was considered as a mechanism of generating optical vortices due to the conversion of spin to the orbital angular momentum of light. Recent papers [16][17][18] show that SOI lies at the origin of the effect of the zitterbewegung consisting in spin-induced oscillations of a ballistic trajectory of exciton polaritons representing microcavity photons strongly coupled to excitons, excitations in semiconductor wells embedded in the microcavity structure. The optical spin Hall effect was also demonstrated for polaritons [11,19] manifested in formation of cartwheel polarization patterns in real space.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We could hide the origin of such behavior of photons behind the trendy research direction of visualization of the quantum geometric tensor and measuring the Berry curvature [5,22]. However, such behavior can be treated in a much simple way as the zitterbewegung of light [16] on a closed path. [Y + (t, r), Y (t, r)] T in the basis of circular polarizations [15]:…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Polygonal patterns of confined light

et al. 2021

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We propose a technique for the generation of polygonal optical patterns in real space using a combined effect of the spin–orbit interaction and confinement of light in the plane of a dielectric optical microcavity. The spin–orbit interaction emerging from the splitting in transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) optical modes of the microcavity gives rise to oscillations in space of propagating macroscopic wave packets of polarized photons. Confined in a harmonic potential, the latter follow closed trajectories of a polygonal form. We demonstrate the possibility of excitation by a continuous wave resonant optical pumping of polygonal optical patterns with a controllable (both even and odd) number of vertices.

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“…The resulting Zitterbewegung (ZBW) motion [42,43] involves a coherent superposition of several bands. The ZBW is studied theoretically and experimentally in various electronic [44][45][46], atomic [47][48][49], and photonic systems [50][51][52][53] including polaritons [54,55]. This is an appealing situation for its description in terms of QM, as noticed in [56], where the QM was shown to be responsible for a contribution to the effective mass.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal semiclassical equations based on the quantum metric

Leblanc,

Malpuech,

Solnyshkov

2021

Preprint

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We derive semiclassical equations of motion for an accelerated wavepacket in a two-band system. We show that these equations can be formulated in terms of the static band geometry described by the quantum metric. We consider the specific cases of the Rashba Hamiltonian with and without a Zeeman term. The semiclassical trajectories are in full agreement with the ones found by solving the Schrödinger equation. This formalism successfully describes the adiabatic limit and the anomalous Hall effect traditionally attributed to Berry curvature. It also describes the opposite limit of coherent band superposition giving rise to a spatially oscillating Zitterbewegung motion. At k = 0, such wavepacket exhibits a circular trajectory in real space, with its radius given by the square root of the quantum metric. This quantity appears as a universal length scale, providing a geometrical origin of the Compton wavelength.

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Zitterbewegung of exciton-polaritons

Cited by 24 publications

References 26 publications

Steering Zitterbewegung in driven Dirac systems: From persistent modes to echoes

Steering Zitterbewegung in driven Dirac systems: From persistent modes to echoes

Polygonal patterns of confined light

Universal semiclassical equations based on the quantum metric

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