Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 24, Pages 8770-8775Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1401988111
Keywords
interferometer; rings; BEC; SQUID
Categories
Funding
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/G060649/1]
- European Union Grant INDEX [289968]
- Spanish Ministry of Economic Competitiveness [MAT2008-01555]
- Leverhulme [VP1-2013-011]
- Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology ARISTEIA Programs Irakleitos II and Apollo
- Skolkovo Foundation
- EPSRC [EP/G060649/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/G060649/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Polariton condensates are macroscopic quantum states formed by half-matter half-light quasiparticles, thus connecting the phenomena of atomic Bose-Einstein condensation, superfluidity, and photon lasing. Here we report the spontaneous formation of such condensates in programmable potential landscapes generated by two concentric circles of light. The imposed geometry supports the emergence of annular states that extend up to 100 mu m, yet are fully coherent and exhibit a spatial structure that remains stable for minutes at a time. These states exhibit a petal-like intensity distribution arising due to the interaction of two superfluids counterpropagating in the circular waveguide defined by the optical potential. In stark contrast to annular modes in conventional lasing systems, the resulting standing wave patterns exhibit only minimal overlap with the pump laser itself. We theoretically describe the system using a complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, which indicates why the condensate wants to rotate. Experimentally, we demonstrate the ability to precisely control the structure of the petal condensates both by carefully modifying the excitation geometry as well as perturbing the system on ultrafast time-scales to reveal unexpected superfluid dynamics.
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