Abstract
We measure the full photon-number distribution emitted from a Bose condensate of microcavity exciton polaritons confined in a micropillar cavity. The statistics are acquired by means of a photon-number-resolving transition edge sensor. We directly observe that the photon-number distribution evolves with the nonresonant optical excitation power from geometric to quasi-Poissonian statistics, which is canonical for a transition from a thermal to a coherent state. Moreover, the photon-number distribution allows one to evaluate the higher-order photon correlations, shedding further light on the coherence formation and phase transition of the polariton condensate. The experimental data are analyzed in terms of thermal-coherent states, which gives direct access to the thermal and coherent fraction from the measured distributions. These results pave the way for a full understanding of the contribution of interactions in light-matter condensates in the coherence buildup at threshold.
- Received 6 October 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.047401
© 2018 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Synopsis
Counting Photons from a Polariton Condensate
Published 25 July 2018
By counting the photons emitted from a microcavity, researchers shed light on the nature of an exotic condensate of quasiparticles contained in the cavity.
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