Quantum degeneracy of microcavity polaritons

Augustin Baas (1) , Jean-Philippe Karr (1) , Marco Romanelli (1) , Alberto Bramati (1) , Elisabeth Giacobino (1)

1 LKB (Jussieu) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel

We investigate experimentally one of the main features of a quantum fluid constituted by exciton polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity , that is quantum degeneracy of a macroscopic fraction of the particles. We show that resonant pumping allows to create a macroscopic population of polaritons in one quantum state. Furthermore we demonstrate that parametric polariton scattering results in the transfer of a macroscopic population of polariton from one single quantum state into another one. Finally we briefly outline a simple method which provides direct evidence of the first-order spatial coherence of the transferred population.

Mots clés: semiconductor microcavities; polaritons; quantum optics; coherence; correlations; transverse modes; condensation

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]

Augustin Baas, Jean-Philippe Karr, Marco Romanelli, Alberto Bramati, Elisabeth Giacobino. Quantum degeneracy of microcavity polaritons. Physical Review Letters, 2006, 96, pp.176401. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.176401⟩. ⟨hal-00003867v2⟩