The Bogoliubov transformation of a polariton quantum fluid has recently been revealed in the four-wave mixing response of a driven microcavity polariton gas. In this work, we investigate the modifications that the dual nature of microcavity polaritons produce on the excitations of this particular half-light--half-matter quantum fluid. We discuss in particular the Bogoliubov character of the excitations of a lower polariton superfluid when it coexists with upper polaritons. We show unique effects resulting from the interplay between polariton decay and Bogoliubov transformation such as the modification of the Bogoliubov dispersion or the slowing down of the four-wave mixing dynamics.
The Bogoliubov transformation of a polariton quantum fluid has recently been revealed in the four-wave mixing response of a driven microcavity polariton gas. In this work, we investigate the modifications that the dual nature of microcavity polaritons produce on the excitations of this particular half-light--half-matter quantum fluid. We discuss in particular the Bogoliubov character of the excitations of a lower polariton superfluid when it coexists with upper polaritons. We show unique effects resulting from the interplay between polariton decay and Bogoliubov transformation such as the modification of the Bogoliubov dispersion or the slowing down of the four-wave mixing dynamics.
Excitons-polaritons of semiconductor microcavities are quasiparticles originating from the dressing of optical cavity photons by the interactions between quantum well electron-hole pairs. In planar geometry, their belonging to the family of quantum fluids has been many times demonstrated through the observation of macroscopic coherence phenomena, such as superfluidity and Bose-Einstein condensation. Like ultracold atoms, polaritons support on their surface a set of collective excitations, the Bogoliubov modes, whose spectrum encompasses the key information to describe the dynamics of quantum fluids. In this thesis, we present a wide variety of results concerning the detection and control of such modes in different configurations. Thanks to the development of a new high-resolution coherent spectroscopy method, we carried out a detailed study of the spectrum of polariton collective excitations. In particular, we highlighted the effects of the driven-dissipative nature of the system on the fundamental dynamics of the fluid, by investigating the interplay between the Bogoliubov modes and the polariton bistability under coherent pumping. This was the opportunity to reveal, in addition to the well-known phonon-type excitations, precursors of dynamical instability and the so-called ghost branch. Moreover, we studied the behavior of out-of-equilibrium phase transitions: first, via the effect of the system dimension on the bistability and, second, with the onset of a Goldstone mode, as a result of a spontaneous symmetry breaking in a parametric oscillation regime. Finally, we designed a pumping geometry that directly controls the instability modes between dark solitons of a pair guided by an intensity channel, leading to the formation of vortex-antivortex streets in the density.
Due to their driven-dissipative nature, photonic quantum fluids present new challenges in understanding superfluidity. Some associated effects have been observed, and notably the report of nearly dissipationless flow for coherently driven microcavity-polaritons was taken as a smoking gun for superflow. Here, we show that the superfluid response-the difference between responses to longitudinal and transverse forces-is zero for coherently driven polaritons. This is a consequence of the gapped excitation spectrum caused by external phase locking. Furthermore, while a normal component exists at finite pump momentum, the remainder forms a rigid state that is unresponsive to either longitudinal or transverse perturbations. Interestingly, the total response almost vanishes when the real part of the excitation spectrum has a linear dispersion, which was the regime investigated experimentally. This suggests that the observed suppression of scattering should be interpreted as a sign of this new rigid state and not a superfluid.
Exciton-polaritons, mixed light-matter quasiparticles in semiconductors, have recently shown evidence for Bose-Einstein condensation. Some of the properties of condensates of exciton-polaritons are reviewed in this article. We first discuss the spontaneous appearance of long-range order and the way this can be easily accessed in the case of polariton fluids. We show that the Penrose-Onsager criterion is valid even for such a very special case of condensate. We then describe the experiments that allow observation of topological defects in the fluid: quantized vortices, half vortices, and hyperbolic spin vortices. We demonstrate through the comparison with the gross Pitaevskii equation that the appearance and stability of such vortices are linked with the dissipative nature of the condensate together with the presence of disorder. We then briefly summarize the experiments on superfluid behavior of the polaritons at large-enough densities and expand somewhat more on the dynamical behavior of turbulence in the wake of an obstacle, with the appearance of vortex streets. We finally show that the Bogoliubov transformation has been revealed through four-wave mixing experiments.
We study the Bose polaron problem in a nonequilibrium setting, by considering an impurity embedded in a quantum fluid of light realized by exciton-polaritons in a microcavity, subject to a coherent drive and dissipation on account of pump and cavity losses. We obtain the polaron effective mass, the drag force acting on the impurity, and determine polaron trajectories at a semiclassical level. We find different dynamical regimes, originating from the unique features of the excitation spectrum of driven-dissipative polariton fluids, in particular a non-trivial regime of acceleration against the flow. Our work promotes the study of impurity dynamics as an alternative testbed for probing superfluidity in quantum fluids of light.
The elementary excitations in weakly interacting quantum fluids have a nontrivial nature which is at the basis of defining quantum phenomena such as superfluidity.These excitations and the physics they lead to have been explored in closed quantum systems at thermal equilibrium both theoretically within the celebrated Bogoliubov framework and experimentally in quantum fluids of ultracold atoms.Over the past decade, the relevance of Bogoliubov excitations has become essential to understand quantum fluids of interacting photons.Their driven-dissipative character leads to distinct properties with respect to their equilibrium counterparts.For instance, the condensate coupling to the photonic vacuum environment leads to a nonzero generation rate of elementary excitations with many striking implications.In this work, considering that quantum fluids of light are often hosted in solid-state systems, we show within a joint theory-experiment analysis that the vibrations of the crystal constitute another environment that the condensate is fundamentally coupled to.This coupling leads to a unique heat transfer mechanism, resulting in a large generation rate of elementary excitations in typical experimental conditions, and to a fundamental nonzero contribution at vanishing temperatures.Our work provides a complete framework for solidembedded quantum fluids of light, which is invaluable in view of achieving a regime dominated by photonvacuum fluctuations.
Spinorial or multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates may sustain fractional quanta of circulation, vorticant topological excitations with half integer windings of phase and polarization. Matter-light quantum fluids, such as microcavity polaritons, represent a unique test bed for realising strongly interacting and out-of-equilibrium condensates. The direct access to the phase of their wavefunction enables us to pursue the quest of whether half vortices ---rather than full integer vortices--- are the fundamental topological excitations of a spinor polariton fluid. Here, we are able to directly generate by resonant pulsed excitations, a polariton fluid carrying either the half or full vortex states as initial condition, and to follow their coherent evolution using ultrafast holography. Surprisingly we observe a rich phenomenology that shows a stable evolution of a phase singularity in a single component as well as in the full vortex state, spiraling, splitting and branching of the initial cores under different regimes and the proliferation of many vortex anti-vortex pairs in self generated circular ripples. This allows us to devise the interplay of nonlinearity and sample disorder in shaping the fluid and driving the phase singularities dynamics