Thermal Decoherence of a Nonequilibrium Polariton Fluid

Sebastian Klembt, Petr Stepanov, Thorsten Klein, Anna Minguzzi, and Maxime Richard
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 035301 – Published 18 January 2018
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Abstract

Exciton polaritons constitute a unique realization of a quantum fluid interacting with its environment. Using selenide-based microcavities, we exploit this feature to warm up a polariton condensate in a controlled way and monitor its spatial coherence. We determine directly the amount of heat picked up by the condensate by measuring the phonon-polariton scattering rate and comparing it with the loss rate. We find that, upon increasing the heating rate, the spatial coherence length decreases markedly, while localized phase structures vanish, in good agreement with a stochastic mean-field theory. From the thermodynamical point of view, this regime is unique, as it involves a nonequilibrium quantum fluid with no well-defined temperature but which is nevertheless able to pick up heat with dramatic effects on the order parameter.

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  • Received 19 May 2017
  • Revised 2 November 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.035301

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Sebastian Klembt1,†, Petr Stepanov1,*, Thorsten Klein2,‡, Anna Minguzzi3, and Maxime Richard1

  • 1Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Institut Néel, 38000 Grenoble, France
  • 2University of Bremen, P.O. Box 330440, 28334 Bremen, Germany
  • 3Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LPMMC, 38000 Grenoble, France

  • *Corresponding author. petr.stepanov@neel.cnrs.fr
  • Present address: Technische Physik, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
  • Present address: BIAS, Bremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology GmbH, Klagenfurter Strasse 5, D-28359 Bremen, Germany.

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Issue

Vol. 120, Iss. 3 — 19 January 2018

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