arXiv subjects

K. West

Publications and source records attributed to K. West.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Coherence of a non-equilibrium polariton condensate across the interaction-mediated phase transition

The emergence of spatial coherence in a confined two-dimensional Bose gas of exciton-polaritons with tuneable interactions offers a unique opportunity to explore the role of interactions in a phase transition in a driven-dissipative quantum system, where both the phase transition and thermalisation are mediated by interactions. We investigate, experimentally and numerically, the phase correlations and steady-state properties of the gas over a wide range of interaction strengths by varying the photonic/excitonic fraction of the polaritons and their density. We find that the first order spatial coherence function exhibits algebraic decay consistent with the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition. Surprisingly, the exponent of the algebraic decay is inversely proportional to the coherent density of polaritons, in analogy to equilibrium superfluids above the BKT transition, but with a different proportionality constant. Our work paves the way for future investigations of the phenomenon of phase transitions and superfluidity in a driven-dissipative setting

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2023

Time, momentum, and energy resolved pump-probe tunneling spectroscopy of two-dimensional electron systems

Real-time probing of electrons can uncover intricate relaxation mechanisms and many-body interactions hidden in strongly correlated materials. While experimenters have used ultrafast optical pump-probe methods in bulk materials, laser heating and insensitivity below the surface prevent their application to encapsulated low-dimensional electron systems at millikelvin temperatures, home to numerous intriguing electronic phases. Here, we introduce time, momentum, and energy resolved pump-probe tunneling spectroscopy (Tr-MERTS). The method allows the injection of electrons at particular energies and observation of their subsequent decay in energy-momentum space. Using Tr-MERTS, we visualize electronic decay processes in Landau levels with lifetimes up to tens of microseconds. Although most observed features agree with simple energy-relaxation, we discover an unexpected splitting in the nonequilibrium energy spectrum in the vicinity of a ferromagnetic state. An exact diagonalization study of the system suggests that the splitting arises from a maximally spin-polarized higher energy state, distinct from a conventional equilibrium skyrmion. Furthermore, we observe time-dependent relaxation of the splitting, which we attribute to single-flipped spins forming topological spin textures. These results establish Tr-MERTS as a powerful tool for studying the dynamics and properties of a two-dimensional electronic system beyond equilibrium.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Persistent, controllable circulation of a polariton ring condensate

Persistent circulation is a canonical effect of superfluidity. In previous experiments, quantized circulation has been observed in polariton condensates, usually far from equilibrium, but persistent current in the absence of any stirring has not been seen. We report here the direct observation of persistent circulation of a polariton condensate with no driving force and with no observable change in time. We can cause the condensate to circulate in either direction on demand using a short laser pulse, after which the condensate continues to circulate for dozens to hundreds of rotations around a ring trap without any further stimulation. Our theoretical model successfully shows how the pulse, despite not carrying any angular momentum, causes the circulation.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Topological phase transition in an all-optical exciton-polariton lattice

Topological insulators are a class of electronic materials exhibiting robust edge states immune to perturbations and disorder. This concept has been successfully adapted in photonics, where topologically nontrivial waveguides and topological lasers were developed. However, the exploration of topological properties in a given photonic system is limited to a fabricated sample, without the flexibility to reconfigure the structure in-situ. Here, we demonstrate an all-optical realization of the orbital Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model in a microcavity exciton-polariton system, whereby a cavity photon is hybridized with an exciton in a GaAs quantum well. We induce a zigzag potential for exciton polaritons all-optically, by shaping the nonresonant laser excitation, and measure directly the eigenspectrum and topological edge states of a polariton lattice in a nonlinear regime of bosonic condensation. Furthermore, taking advantage of the tunability of the optically induced lattice we modify the intersite tunneling to realize a topological phase transition to a trivial state. Our results open the way to study topological phase transitions on-demand in fully reconfigurable hybrid photonic systems that do not require sophisticated sample engineering.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Low-energy collective oscillations and Bogoliubov sound in an exciton-polariton condensate

We report the observation of low-energy, low-momenta collective oscillations of an excitonpolariton condensate in a round "box" trap. The oscillations are dominated by the dipole and breathing modes, and the ratio of the frequencies of the two modes is consistent with that of a weakly interacting two-dimensional trapped Bose gas. The speed of sound extracted from the dipole oscillation frequency is smaller than the Bogoliubov sound, which can be partly explained by the influence of the incoherent reservoir. These results pave the way for understanding the effects of reservoir, dissipation, energy relaxation, and finite temperature on the superfluid properties of exciton-polariton condensates and other two-dimensional open-dissipative quantum fluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Collective excitations of exciton-polariton condensates in a synthetic gauge field

Collective (elementary) excitations of quantum bosonic condensates, including condensates of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities, are a sensitive probe of interparticle interactions. In anisotropic microcavities with momentum-dependent TE-TM splitting of the optical modes, the excitations dispersions are predicted to be strongly anisotropic, which is a consequence of the synthetic magnetic gauge field of the cavity, as well as the interplay between different interaction strengths for polaritons in the singlet and triplet spin configurations. Here, by directly measuring the dispersion of the collective excitations in a high-density optically trapped exciton-polariton condensate, we observe excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions for spinor polariton excitations. We extract the inter- and intra-spin polariton interaction constants and map out the characteristic spin textures in an interacting spinor condensate of exciton polaritons.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Dynamics of spin polarization in tilted polariton rings

We have observed the effect of pseudo magnetic field originating from the polaritonic analog of spin-orbit coupling (TE$-$TM splitting) on a polariton condensate in a ring-shaped microcavity. The effect gives rise to a stable four-leaf pattern around the ring as seen from the linear polarization measurements of the condensate photoluminescence. This pattern is found to originate from the interplay of the cavity potential, energy relaxation, and TE-TM splitting in the ring. Our observations are compared to the dissipative one-dimensional spinor Gross-Pitaevskii equation with the TE-TM splitting energy which shows good qualitative agreement.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Spatial distribution of an optically induced excitonic reservoir below exciton-polariton condensation threshold

Optical trapping and manipulation of microcavity exciton polaritons rely on effective potentials induced by the interaction of polaritons with a reservoir of high energy excitonic particles injected by an off-resonant optical pump. Here, we experimentally investigate possible mechanisms responsible for reshaping of these effective potentials in the low-density exciton-polariton regime. We infer the spatial distribution of the reservoir from the spatially resolved energy of exciton-polariton emission measured at zero momentum (zero kinetic energy). Power-dependent shape analysis of the potential barrier induced by a focused continuous wave laser pump shows a monotonic decrease of the barrier width with increasing excitation power, which is attributed to the local heating of the sample at the pump spot. In addition, we observe the significant influence of the reservoir on the zero-momentum emission tens of micrometers away from the laser pump spot, which is in line with the previously reported enhanced transport of high-momentum excitonic polaritons from the bottleneck region. Our work presents evidence for a complex spatial reshaping of the reservoir with the pump power, contrary to the common assumption of a static reservoir distribution fixed by the intensity profile of the pump.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2020

Observation of Algebraic Time Order for Two-Dimensional Dipolar Excitons

Emergence of algebraic quasi-long-range order is a key feature of superfluid phase transitions at two dimensions. For this reduced dimensionality interactions prevent Bose-Einstein condensation with true long range order, at any finite temperature. Here, we report the occurence of algebraic order in a strongly interacting quantum liquid formed by dipolar excitons confined in a bilayer semiconductor heterostructure. We observe a transition from exponential to algebraic decay of the excitons temporal coherence, accompanied by a universal scaling behaviour of the equation of state. Our results provide strong evidence for a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in a multi-component boson-like system governed by strong dipolar interactions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Complete spin phase diagram of the fractional quantum Hall liquid

Study of the ground-state electronic spin-polarization can permit discovery and identification of novel correlated phases in the quantum Hall (QH) system. It can thus determine the potential usefulness of QH states for quantum computing. However, prior measurements involving optical and NMR techniques may perturb the system away from delicate ground-states. Here, we present spin-resolved pulsed tunneling (SRPT) that precisely determines the complete phase diagram of the ground-state spin-polarization as a function of magnetic field (B) and filling factor (ν). We observe fully-polarized ν = 5/2 and 8/3 states at very small B, suggesting strong deviation from the weakly-interacting composite-fermion model that largely successfully describes our phase diagram for the lowest Landau level. The results establish SRPT as a powerful technique for investigating correlated electron phenomena.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Observation of Non-equilibrium Motion and Equilibration in Polariton Rings

We present a study of the macroscopic dynamics of a polariton condensate formed by non-resonant optical excitation in a quasi-one-dimensional ring-shaped microcavity. The presence of a gradient in the cavity photon energy creates a macroscopic trap for the polaritons in which a single mode condensate is formed. With time- and energy-resolved imaging we show the role of interactions in the motion of the condensate as it undergoes equilibration in the ring. These experiments also give a direct measurement of the polariton-polariton interaction strength above the condensation threshold. Our observations are compared to the open-dissipative one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation which shows excellent qualitative agreement.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Direct measurement of polariton-polariton interaction strength in the Thomas-Fermi regime of exciton-polariton condensation

Bosonic condensates of exciton polaritons (light-matter quasiparticles in a semiconductor) provide a solid-state platform for studies of non-equilibrium quantum systems with a spontaneous macroscopic coherence. These driven, dissipative condensates typically coexist and interact with an incoherent reservoir, which undermines measurements of key parameters of the condensate. Here, we overcome this limitation by creating a high-density exciton-polariton condensate in an optically-induced "box" trap. In this so-called Thomas-Fermi regime, the condensate is fully separated from the reservoir and its behaviour is dominated by interparticle interactions. We use this regime to directly measure the polariton-polariton interaction strength, and reduce the existing uncertainty in its value from four orders of magnitude to within three times the theoretical prediction. The Thomas-Fermi regime has previously been demonstrated only in ultracold atomic gases in thermal equilibrium. In a non-equilibrium exciton-polariton system, this regime offers a novel opportunity to study interaction-driven effects unmasked by an incoherent reservoir.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Effect of optically-induced potential on the energy of trapped exciton-polaritons below the condensation threshold

Exciton-polaritons (polaritons herein) offer a unique nonlinear platform for studies of collective macroscopic quantum phenomena in a solid state system. Shaping of polariton flow and polariton confinement via potential landscapes created by nonresonant optical pumping has gained considerable attention due to the degree of flexibility and control offered by optically-induced potentials. Recently, large density-dependent energy shifts (blueshifts) exhibited by optically trapped polaritons at low densities, below the bosonic condensation threshold, were interpreted as an evidence of strong polariton-polariton interactions [Nat. Phys. 13, 870 (2017)]. In this work, we further investigate the origins of these blueshifts in optically-induced circular traps and present evidence of significant blueshift of the polariton energy due to reshaping of the optically-induced potential with laser pump power. Our work demonstrates strong influence of the effective potential formed by an optically-injected excitonic reservoir on the energy blueshifts observed below and up to the polariton condensation threshold and suggests that the observed blueshifts arise due to interaction of polaritons with the excitonic reservoir, rather than due to polariton-polariton interaction.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2019

Direct measurement of the quantum geometric tensor in a two-dimensional continuous medium

Topological Physics relies on the specific structure of the eigenstates of Hamiltonians. Their geometry is encoded in the quantum geometric tensor containing both the celebrated Berry curvature, crucial for topological matter, and the quantum metric. The latter is at the heart of a growing number of physical phenomena such as superfluidity in flat bands, orbital magnetic susceptibility, exciton Lamb shift, and non-adiabatic corrections to the anomalous Hall effect. Here, we report the first direct measurement of both Berry curvature and quantum metric in a two-dimensional continuous medium. The studied platform is a planar microcavity of extremely high finesse, in the strong coupling regime. It hosts mixed exciton-photon modes (exciton-polaritons) subject to photonic spin-orbit-coupling which makes emerge Dirac cones and exciton Zeeman splitting breaking time-reversal symmetry. The monopolar and half-skyrmion pseudospin textures are measured by polarisation-resolved photoluminescence. The associated quantum geometry of the bands is straightforwardly extracted from these measurements. Our results unveil the intrinsic chirality of photonic modes which is at the basis of topological photonics. This technique can be extended to measure Bloch band geometries in artificial lattices. The use of exciton-polaritons (interacting photons) opens wide perspectives for future studies of quantum fluid physics in topological systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Polariton-Enhanced Exciton Transport

The transport distance of excitons in exciton-polariton systems has previously been assumed to be very small ($\lesssim 1~μ$m). The sharp spatial profiles observed when generating polaritons by non-resonant optical excitation show that this assumption is generally true. In this paper, however, we show that the transport distances of excitons in two-dimensional planar cavity structures with even a slightly polaritonic character are much longer than expected ($\approx 20~μ$m). Although this population of slightly polaritonic excitons is normally small compared to the total population of excitons, they can substantially outnumber the population of the polaritons at lower energies, leading to important implications for the tailoring of potential landscapes and the measurement of interactions between polaritons.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Pushing Photons with Electrons: Observation of the Polariton Drag Effect

We show the direct effect of free electrons colliding with polaritons, changing their momentum. The result of this interaction of the electrons with the polaritons is a change in the angle of emission of the photons from our cavity structure. Because the experiment is a photon-in, photon-out system, this is equivalent to optical beam steering of photons using a direct electrical current. The effect is asymmetric, significantly slowing down the polaritons when they move oppositely to the electrons, while the polariton momentum only slightly increases when electrons moving in the same direction. We present a theoretical model which describes this effect.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2018

Superlinear Increase of Photocurrent due to Stimulated Scattering into a Polariton Condensate

We show that when a monopolar current is passed through an n-i-n structure, superlinear photocurrent response occurs when there is a polariton condensate. This is in sharp contrast to the previously observed behavior for a standard semiconductor laser. Theoretical modeling shows that this is due to a stimulated exciton-exciton scattering process in which one exciton relaxes into the condensate, while another one dissociates into an electron-hole pair.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Chiral modes at exceptional points in exciton-polariton quantum fluids

We demonstrate generation of chiral modes -- vortex flows with fixed handedness in exciton-polariton quantum fluids. The chiral modes arise in the vicinity of exceptional points (non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies) in an optically-induced resonator for exciton polaritons. In particular, a vortex is generated by driving two dipole modes of the non-Hermitian ring resonator into degeneracy. Transition through the exceptional point in the space of the system's parameters is enabled by precise manipulation of real and imaginary parts of the closed-wall potential forming the resonator. As the system is driven to the vicinity of the exceptional point, we observe the formation of a vortex state with a fixed orbital angular momentum (topological charge). Our method can be extended to generate high-order orbital angular momentum states through coalescence of multiple non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies, which could find application in integrated optoelectronics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗