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arXiv:2304.09159 · Communications Physics

Magneto-optical induced supermode switching in quantum fluids of light

Magdalena Furman, Rafał Mirek, Mateusz Król, W. Pacuski, Helgi Sigurðsson, Jacek Szczytko, Barbara Piętka

Published Aug 1, 2023• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The insensitivity of photons towards external magnetic fields forms one of the hardest barriers against efficient magneto-optical control, aiming at modulating the polarization state of light. However, there is even scarcer evidence of magneto-optical effects that can spatially modulate light. Here, we demonstrate the latter by exploiting strongly coupled states of semimagnetic matter and light in planar semiconductor microcavities. We nonresonantly excite two spatially adjacent exciton-polariton condensates which, through inherent ballistic near field coupling mechanism, spontaneously synchronise into a dissipative quantum fluidic supermode of definite parity. Applying a magnetic field along the optical axis, we continuously adjust the light-matter composition of the condensate exciton-polaritons, inducing a supermode switch into a higher order mode of opposite parity. Our findings set the ground towards magnetic spatial modulation of nonlinear light.

DOI
10.1038/s42005-023-01319-5

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External driving of spins by magnetic or optical fields in different systems underpins numerous applications ranging from magnetic resonance imaging to coherent state control in quantum computing. Here, we reveal the effect of an all-optically driven spin precession in microcavity polariton condensates. It is achieved through a radio frequency modulation of a spatially rotating, asymmetric exciton reservoir that both confines and actively replenishes the polariton condensate. The non-resonant stirring profile is realized by the beating note of two structured and frequency-detuned laser beams. We realize the GHz driven spin precession with striking phase stability, which occurs only in the resonance with the internal condensate self-induced Larmor precession frequency. From the shape of the revealed resonance, we estimate the spin coherence time ( T 2 ) for the polariton condensate. Our observations are supported by numerical simulations and evidence a quantum fluidic analogue of the nuclear magnetic resonance effect.
From the canonical and rotating-wave transformations, we obtained the effective lower-polariton Hamiltonian depending on the applied magnetic field from the coupling of one of the quantum-well excitons and photons in a semiconductor microcavity. When the pump field is circularly polarized, the nonlinear interaction can induce a strong polariton blockade near the resonant peaks, which can be suppressed by a large pump in weak magnetic field situations. Thus, the platform behavior in the variation of the polariton occupation proves the polariton quantum blockade. On the other hand, when the pump field is linearly polarized, we achieve a single-photon emitter whose polariton polarization can be adjusted by an applied magnetic field. Polaritons with opposite spins, on the other hand, are anti-bunching in the lower excitation regime and become bunching only in weak magnetic field situations and a high excitation regime. Our findings constitute a potential step toward the realization of strongly coupled polaritonic systems.
We theoretically study the dynamics of a strongly coupled quantum dot–bimodal microcavity system under an external magnetic field, where the nondegenerate excitonic spin states caused by the Zeeman effect are coupled to both orthogonal cavity modes. We develop an effective cavity quantum electrodynamics model, demonstrate the polarization-related nonlinear response under a linearly polarized pulse excitation by calculating the time-resolved intracavity photon number, and investigate the dependence of system parameters on the nonlinearity. In addition, we show that, when driven by two pulses with perpendicular polarization and a relative time delay, the coupled system suppresses the delayed one, which can be applied to polarized optical switching at a single-photon level.
This article reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical systems. In the presence of effective photon-photon interactions induced by the optical nonlinearity of the medium, a many-photon system can behave collectively as a quantum fluid with a number of novel features stemming from its intrinsically nonequilibrium nature. A rich variety of recently observed photon hydrodynamical effects is presented, from the superfluid flow around a defect at low speeds, to the appearance of a Mach-Cherenkov cone in a supersonic flow, to the hydrodynamic formation of topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons at the surface of large impenetrable obstacles. While the review is mostly focused on a specific class of semiconductor systems that have been extensively studied in recent years (planar semiconductor microcavities in the strong light-matter coupling regime having cavity polaritons as elementary excitations), the very concept of quantum fluids of light applies to a broad spectrum of systems, ranging from bulk nonlinear crystals, to atomic clouds embedded in optical fibers and cavities, to photonic crystal cavities, to superconducting quantum circuits based on Josephson junctions. The conclusive part of the article is devoted to a review of the future perspectives in the direction of strongly correlated photon gases and of artificial gauge fields for photons. In particular, several mechanisms to obtain efficient photon blockade are presented, together with their application to the generation of novel quantum phases.
We show experimentally optical bistability and the existence of bright and dark resonator solitons in the strong coupling regime between quantum-well excitons and the optical field in a semiconductor microcavity. The strong coupling results in a quasi-particle exciton-polariton, which gives access to positive and negative reactive and dissipative optical nonlinearities, as opposed to the usual room temperature semiconductor nonlinearities possessing essentially only one sign. The existence range and the properties of solitons can be varied widely by the detuning between polariton states and light frequency.
Phase transitions, where observable properties of a many-body system change discontinuously, can occur in both open and closed systems. By placing cold atoms in optical cavities and inducing strong coupling between light and excitations of the atoms, one can experimentally study phase transitions of open quantum systems. Here we observe and study a non-equilibrium phase transition, the condensation of supermode-density-wave polaritons. These polaritons are formed from a superposition of cavity photon eigenmodes (a supermode), coupled to atomic density waves of a quantum gas. As the cavity supports multiple photon spatial modes and because the light-matter coupling can be comparable to the energy splitting of these modes, the composition of the supermode polariton is changed by the light-matter coupling on condensation. By demonstrating the ability to observe and understand density-wave-polariton condensation in the few-mode-degenerate cavity regime, our results show the potential to study similar questions in fully multimode cavities.