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Transition from Propagating Polariton Solitons to a Standing Wave Condensate Induced by Interactions

M. Sich, J. K. Chana, O. A. Egorov, H. Sigurdsson, I. A. Shelykh, D. V. Skryabin, P. M. Walker, E. Clarke, B. Royall, M. S. Skolnick, and D. N. Krizhanovskii
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 167402 – Published 19 April 2018
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Abstract

We explore phase transitions of polariton wave packets, first, to a soliton and then to a standing wave polariton condensate in a multimode microwire system, mediated by nonlinear polariton interactions. At low excitation density, we observe ballistic propagation of the multimode polariton wave packets arising from the interference between different transverse modes. With increasing excitation density, the wave packets transform into single-mode bright solitons due to effects of both intermodal and intramodal polariton-polariton scattering. Further increase of the excitation density increases thermalization speed, leading to relaxation of the polariton density from a solitonic spectrum distribution in momentum space down to low momenta, with the resultant formation of a nonequilibrium condensate manifested by a standing wave pattern across the whole sample.

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  • Received 7 December 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.167402

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

M. Sich1,*, J. K. Chana1,2, O. A. Egorov3, H. Sigurdsson4, I. A. Shelykh4,5, D. V. Skryabin6,5, P. M. Walker1, E. Clarke7, B. Royall1, M. S. Skolnick1,5, and D. N. Krizhanovskii1,5,†

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom
  • 2Base4 Innovation, Ltd., Cambridge CB3 0FA, United Kingdom
  • 3Technische Physik der Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland 97074, Würzburg, Germany
  • 4Science Institute, University of Iceland, Dunhagi-3, IS-107 Reykjavik, Iceland
  • 5Department of Nanophotonics and Metamaterials, ITMO University, St. Petersburg 197101, Russia
  • 6Department of Physics, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom
  • 7EPSRC National Centre for III-V Technologies, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DE, United Kingdom

  • *m.sich@sheffield.ac.uk
  • d.krizhanovskii@sheffield.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 120, Iss. 16 — 20 April 2018

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