The mechanism of second thresholds observed in several experiments is theoretically revealed by studying the BEC-BCS-laser crossover in exciton-polariton systems. We find that there are two different types of second thresholds: one is a crossover within quasiequilibrium phases and the other is into nonequilibrium (lasing). In both cases, the light-induced band renormalization causes gaps in the conduction and valence bands, which indicates the existence of bound electron-hole pairs in contrast to earlier expectations. We also show that these two types can be distinguished by the gain spectra.
The mechanism of second thresholds observed in several experiments is theoretically revealed by studying the BEC-BCS-laser crossover in exciton-polariton systems. We find that there are two different types of second thresholds: one is a crossover within quasiequilibrium phases and the other is into nonequilibrium (lasing). In both cases, the light-induced band renormalization causes gaps in the conduction and valence bands, which indicates the existence of bound electron-hole pairs in contrast to earlier expectations. We also show that these two types can be distinguished by the gain spectra.
The crossover between low and high density regimes of exciton-polariton condensates is examined using a BCS wave-function approach. Our approach is an extension of the BEC-BCS crossover theory for excitons, but includes a cavity photon field. The approach can describe both the low density limit, where the system can be described as a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of exciton-polaritons, and the high density limit, where the system enters a photon-dominated regime. In contrast to the exciton BEC-BCS crossover where the system approaches an electron-hole plasma, the polariton high density limit has strongly correlated electron-hole pairs. At intermediate densities, there is a regime with BCS-like properties, with a peak at nonzero momentum of the singlet pair function. We calculate the expected photoluminescence and give several experimental signatures of the crossover.
Many-body features caused by Coulomb correlations are of great importance for understanding phenomena pertaining to polariton systems in semiconductor microcavities, i.e. electron–hole–photon systems. Remarkable many-body effects are shown to exist in both thermal-equilibrium phases and non-equilibrium lasing states. We then show a unified framework for connecting the thermal-equilibrium and the non-equilibrium steady states based on a non-equilibrium Green's function approach. Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC)–Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS)-laser crossovers are investigated by using this approach.
Electrons, holes, and photons in semiconductors are interacting fermions and bosons. In this system, a variety of ordered coherent phases can be formed through the spontaneous phase symmetry breaking because of their interactions. The Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of excitons and polaritons is one of such coherent phases, which can potentially cross over into the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) type ordered phase at high densities under quasiequilibrium conditions, known as the BCS-BEC crossover. In contrast, one can find the semiconductor laser, superfluorescence (SF), and superradiance as relevant phenomena under nonequilibrium conditions. In this paper, we present a comprehensive generating functional theory that yields nonequilibrium Green's functions in a rigorous way. The theory gives us a starting point to discuss these phases in a unified view with a diagrammatic technique. Comprehensible time-dependent equations are derived within the Hartree-Fock approximation, which generalize the Maxwell-semiconductor-Bloch equations under the relaxation time approximation. With the help of this formalism, we clarify the relationship among these cooperative phenomena and we show theoretically that the Fermi-edge SF is directly connected to the e-h BCS phase. We also discuss the emission spectra as well as the gain-absorption spectra.
Recently, the two-dimensional nanocavity exciton-polariton system confined in semiconductor nanocavities has emerged as a promising alternative of BoseEinstein Condensate (BEC). The strong quantum correlations presents in this system, make it an unique candidate for studying entanglement and quantum phase transitions —qualitative changes in the ground state properties—. In this work, we review previous evidence, obtained by us, in the phase transitions of a finite exciton-polariton system. First, by using a BCS wave function to compute the ground state energy of N excitons without the photonic field, a crossover from the high-density electron-hole phase to the BCS excitonic phase is found, at a density which is roughly four times the close-packing density of excitons. Second, by means of a self-consistent procedure with a trial function composed of a coherent photon field and a BCS function for the electron-hole pairs, we obtain the scaling of the critical temperature with the number of polaritons. Using the method proposed originally by Olliver and Zurek, and subsequently developed by Bo Li and Zhi-Xi Wang , we calculate the discord for a generalized density operator, proposed by Blaizot
BEC of exciton-polaritons and related effects such as superfluidity1,2, spontaneous symmetry breaking3,4 and quantised vortices5,6 open way to creation of novel light sources7 and optical logic elements8. Remarkable observations of exciton-polariton BEC in microcavities9-12 have been reported in the recent ten years. Very recently, thermalisation and subsequent condensation of cavity photons in a dye-filled microcavity have been observed13. Here we show that BEC of both exciton-polaritons and photons can be created in the same system under different optical excitation conditions. A dynamic phase transition between a photon and a polariton BEC takes place after a single high-power excitation pulse and we find both condensed states in thermal equilibrium with the excited states. At the crossover, photons and polaritons coexist, which results in a decrease in the long-range spatial coherence. Build-up and successive depinning of polarisation is observed at the threshold of both polariton and photon condensation.
We explore the behavior of a system that consists of a photon mode dipole coupled to a medium of two-level oscillators in a microcavity in the presence of decoherence. We consider two types of decoherence processes, which are analogous to magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities in superconductors. We study different phases of this system as the decoherence strength and the excitation density are changed. For a low decoherence we obtain a polariton condensate with comparable excitonic and photonic parts at low densities and a BCS-like state with a bigger photon component due to the fermionic phase-space filling effect at high densities. In both cases there is a large gap in the density of states. As the decoherence is increased, the gap is broadened and suppressed, resulting in a gapless condensate and finally a suppression of the coherence in a low-density regime and a laser at the high-density limit. A crossover between these regimes is studied in a self-consistent way analogous to the Abrikosov and Gor'kov theory of gapless superconductivity [A. A. Abrikosov and L. P. Gor'kov, Sov. Phys. JETP 12, 1243 (1960)].