Realization of all-optical vortex switching in exciton-polariton condensates

Abstract

Vortices are topological objects representing the circular motion of a fluid. With their additional degree of freedom, the 'vorticity', they have been widely investigated in many physical systems and different materials for fundamental interest and for applications in data storage and information processing. Vortices have also been observed in non-equilibrium exciton-polariton condensates in planar semiconductor microcavities. There they appear spontaneously or can be created and pinned in space using ring-shaped optical excitation profiles. However, using the vortex state for information processing not only requires creation of a vortex but also efficient control over the vortex after its creation. Here we demonstrate a simple approach to control and switch a localized polariton vortex between opposite states. In our scheme, both the optical control of vorticity and its detection through the orbital angular momentum of the emitted light are implemented in a robust and practical manner.arXiv:1907.03171v1 [physics.optics]

Optically controlled polariton condensate molecules

“…Stimulated bosonic scattering from the surrounding exciton gas then provides gain to the confined condensate, compensating for photonic losses due to the finite microcavity quality factor. In optical traps, polariton condensates demonstrate rich phenomenology, including spin bifurcations [15], quantum chaos [16], vortices [17,18], spin hysteresis [19], and multilevel synchronization between traps [20].…”

Formation dynamics of exciton-polariton vortices created by nonresonant annular pumping

“…The numerically sorted intensity distributions (∼ |A OAM | 2 ) of the OAM presented in Fig. 3(b) are calculated by 43 A OAM (m) = Ψ(r)e imφ dr,…”

Distinguishing intrinsic photon correlations from external noise with frequency-resolved homodyne detection

“…To demonstrate the possibility to distinguish intrinsic and external noise using ultrafast homodyne detection, we investigate the emission from a non-resonantly excited polariton condensate. The sample is the same one used before 19 and we used non-resonant cw excitation at the first minimum of the stop band to excite the sample. The excitation beam had a ring-shaped spot shape and a diameter of .…”