Operation speed of polariton condensate switches gated by excitons

We present a time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) study in real and momentum space of a polariton condensate switch in a quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor microcavity. The polariton flow across the ridge is gated by excitons inducing a barrier potential due to repulsive interactions. A study of the device operation dependence on the power of the pulsed gate beam obtains a satisfactory compromise for the on-off signal ratio and switching time of the order of 0.3 and similar to 50 ps, respectively. The opposite transition is governed by the long-lived gate excitons, consequently, the off-on switching time is similar to 200 ps, limiting the overall operation speed of the device to similar to 3 GHz. The experimental results are compared to numerical simulations based on a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation, taking into account incoherent pumping, decay, and energy relaxation within the condensate.