A brief review of the theory of the ground state properties of the electron–hole system is presented, discussing the full density regime from isolated excitons to the electron–hole plasma. Particular attention is devoted to a discussion of coherent condensed phases, especially when excitonic recombination allows the excitonic coherence to be transferred to the light field.
A brief review of the theory of the ground state properties of the electron–hole system is presented, discussing the full density regime from isolated excitons to the electron–hole plasma. Particular attention is devoted to a discussion of coherent condensed phases, especially when excitonic recombination allows the excitonic coherence to be transferred to the light field.
In this work, we study the exciton-polariton condensate phase transition in a microcavity matter-light system in which electron-hole Coulomb interaction and matter-light coupling effects are treated on an equal footing. In the framework of the unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation applying the two-dimensional exciton-polariton model, we derive the self-consistent equations determining simultaneously the excitonic and the photonic condenstate order parameters. In the thermal-equilibrium limit, we find a condensed state of the exciton-polariton systems and phase diagrams are then constructed. At a given low temperature, the condensate by its nature shows a crossover from an excitonic to a polaritonic and finally photonic condensed state as the excitation density increases at large detuning. Without the detuning, the excitonic condensed state disappears whereas the polaritonic or photonic phases dominate. The crossover is also found by lowering the Coulomb interaction at a finite matter-light coupling. Lowering the Coulomb interaction or increasing the temperature, the excitonic Mott transition occurs, at which the exciton-polariton condensates dissociate to free electron-hole/photon. Depending on temperature and excitation density, the phase transition of the exciton-polariton condensates is also addressed in signatures of photoluminescence mapping to the photonic momentum distribution.
We review, aiming at an audience of final year undergraduates, the phenomena observed in, and properties of, microcavity exciton–polariton condensates. These are condensates of mixed light and matter, consisting of superpositions of photons in semiconductor microcavities and excitons in quantum wells. Because of the imperfect confinement of the photon component, exciton–polaritons have a finite lifetime, and have to be continuously re-populated. Therefore, exciton–polariton condensates lie somewhere between equilibrium Bose–Einstein condensates and lasers. We review in particular the evidence for condensation, the coherence properties studied experimentally, and the wide variety of spatial structures either observed or predicted to exist in exciton–polariton condensates, including quantised vortices and other coherent structures. We also discuss the question of superfluidity in a non-equilibrium system, reviewing both the experimental attempts to investigate superfluidity to date, and the theoretical suggestions of how it may be further elucidated.
Introduction. Polaritons and Semiconductor Microcavities As we have mentioned previously, BEC of excitons or biexcitons and lasing can be seen as two limits of the same theory. Lasing occurs in the case of strong electron-photon coupling (recombination rate fast compared with interparticle-scattering rate) while excitonic BEC occurs in the case of weak electron-photon coupling (recombination rate slow compared with the interparticle-scattering rate.) A laser can be seen as a Bose condensate in which the long-range phase coherence exists in the photon states [1], while in the exciton condensate the coherence exists in the electronic states. This is one of the reasons for some of the confusing debates in the early history of excitonic Bose condensation – in many systems there is not a sharp distinction between an excitonic condensate and supperradiance, i.e., luminescence with enhanced intensity due to stimulated emission [2-4]. In the previous chapters, we have so far considered a laser light source only as a source of excitons by means of quantum transitions. In Chapter 6, the laser radiation was taken into account as a given external factor. This chapter is dedicated to phenomena related to a strong and noticeable exciton-photon interaction, when the light significantly influences the energy spectrum of the high-density excitons [5-9]. As we will see, this leads to many fascinating effects related to instabilities. A strong exciton-photon interaction implies a strong polariton effect, in which photon and exciton states are mixed (as in Fig. 1.3). When this mixing is strong, it is not obvious how to define the ground state of the system.
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
This chapter discusses a collective coherent ground state in ‘exciton-like’ many-body systems (excitons, microcavity polaritons, quantum Hall bilayers, dimer spin systems, ultracold atomic fermi gases, etc.) in terms of Bose-Einstein condensation. With both cases, the high-density limit (BCS limit) and low-density limit (BEC limit) are described in a unified way. The decoherence effects which are relevant to a thermodynamically open system such as short-lived microcavity polaritons are outlined.
A theoretical study is reported of stimulated light scattering, including wave-vector reversal and anomalous transmission, by a coherent phase in electron-hole (e-h) systems of low and high charge-carrier density. For these two cases the coherent phase is taken to be a Bose-Einstein condensate of excitons or a BCS-like state of e-h pairs, respectively. The scattering mechanism is laser-induced coherent recombination of two excitons or two coherent e-h pairs, respectively. The e-h system is assumed to exist within a GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum well or bulk GaAs. The emission rate of two photons with antiparallel momenta is estimated. Multiphoton emission due to multiexciton coherent recombination is covered. Methods for detecting the effects predicted are proposed.