Quantum fluid effects and parametric instabilities in microcavities

We present a description of the non-equilibrium properties of a microcavity polariton fluid, injected by a nearly-resonant continuous wave pump laser. In the first part, we point out the interplay between the peculiar dispersion of the Bogoliubov-like polariton excitations and the onset of polariton parametric instabilities. We show how collective excitation spectra having no counterpart in equilibrium systems can be observed by tuning the excitation angle and frequency. In the second part, we explain the impact of these collective excitations on the in-plane propagation of the polariton fluid. We show that the resonant Rayleigh scattering induced by artificial or natural defects is a very sensitive tool to reveal novel fascinating effects such as polariton superfluidity or to show new aspects of the Cherenkov effect. We present a comprehensive set of predicted far-field and near-field images for the resonant Rayleigh scattering emission. (c) 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.