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arXiv:cond-mat/0006099 · Physical Review Letters

Probing Bose-Einstein Condensation of Excitons with Electromagnetic Radiation

Kristinn Johnsen, G. M. Kavoulakis

Published Jan 29, 2001• 56 citations
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Abstract

We examine the absorption spectrum of electromagnetic radiation from excitons, where an exciton in the 1s state absorbs a photon and makes a transition to the 2p state. We demonstrate that the absorption spectrum depends strongly on the quantum degeneracy of the exciton gas, and that it will generally manifest many-body effects. Based on our results we propose that absorption of infrared radiation could resolve recent contradictory experimental results on excitons in Cu(2)O.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.86.858

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Cambridge University Press eBooks•Feb 28, 2000•1 citation
We examine the absorption spectrum of electromagnetic radiation from excitons, where an exciton in the 1s state absorbs a photon and makes a transition to the 2p state. We demonstrate that the absorption spectrum depends strongly on the quantum degeneracy of the exciton gas, and that it will generally manifest many-body effects. Based on our results we propose that absorption of infrared radiation could resolve recent contradictory experimental results on excitons in Cu(2)O.
The absorption and gain bands of a weak probe signal in the presence of the Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons, which appears under nonequilibrium conditions in a field of coherent laser radiation, are considered. It is shown that the absorption of light is caused by a quantum transition from the ground state of the crystal to the quasiexciton branch of the spectrum. Amplification of the signal occurs as a result of transitions from the quasiexciton branch of the spectrum to the ground state of the crystal.
We examine the absorption and amplification bands of a weak probe signal in the presence of Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons that emerges in nonequilibrium conditions in the field of coherent laser radiation with a wave vector k 0. We assume that the detuning Δ~\tilde \Delta Δ~ from resonance between the energy ħω ex (k 0)+L 0 of the exciton level, which is shifted because of exciton-exciton interaction, and the laser photon energy ħω L , is generally nonzero. The elementary excitation spectrum consisting of the quasiexcitonic and quasienergy branches determines the optical properties of the system. When there is real induced Bose-Einstein condensation, at Δ~=0\tilde \Delta = 0Δ~=0 the two branches touch, as they do in spontaneous Bose-Einstein condensation. In virtual induced Bose-Einstein condensation, when Δ~<0\tilde \Delta < 0Δ~<0 , instabilities emerge in the spectrum in certain regions of the k-space. These instabilities are caused by a real transformation of two laser photons into two extracondensate particles. Nonequilibrium extracondensate excitons strongly affect the absorption and amplification of the probe light signal. We show that light absorption is due to the quantum transition from the ground state of the crystal to the quasiexcitonic branch of the spectrum. On the other hand, amplification of the signal is caused by the transition from the quasienergy branch to the ground state of the crystal. The same transition can be explained by a real transformation of two laser photons into a vacuum photon of frequency ħcq and a crystal exciton with a wave vector 2k 0−q. Finally, we show that the excitonic absorption and light-amplification bands are essentially anisotropic at Δ~≈0\tilde \Delta \approx 0Δ~≈0 and depend on the orientation of the vectors q and k 0.
The exciton absorption and emission bands in the presence of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of excitons, induced by the coherent laser radiation is considered. The laser radiation creates the coherent macroscopic polarization of the crystal, which is described as a virtual BEC of excitons. The energy spectrum of the elementary excitations as well as the probabilities of the quantum transitions depend essentially on the frequency detuning (Delta) -. The nonequilibrium occupation numbers of out-of-condensate excitons nexq arising in the presence of virtual BEC influence on the forms of absorption and emission bands.
In a first part, a brief review of some excitonic properties is presented, with the accent put on their relevance with respect to the possibility of Bose-Einstein condensation. In a second part, recent experimental evidence is described, which supports the idea that excitonic particles may form a highly quantum fluid. In Cu20, the analysis of the exciton decay spectrum shows a gradual evolution of the gas from a classical regime at low densities up to a strongly degenerate one at high densities, with a chemical potential µ ~ 0. In CuCl excitons are unstable against formation of molecules (biexcitons). It is possible to generate directly a high density gas of biexcitons with momentum K ~ 0 by giant two-photon absorption. At low excitation, the observed molecular emission is in agreement with Maxwell -Boltzmann statistics. At high densities, strong deviations occur. In particular, the appearance of a sharp emission line is attributed to the presence of a Bose-Einstein condensate of excitonic molecules.
Abstract An unambiguous observation of the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of excitons in a photoexcited bulk semiconductor and elucidation of its inherent nature have been longstanding problems in condensed matter physics. Here, we observe the quantum phase transition and a Bose-Einstein condensate appearing in a trapped gas of 1s paraexcitons in bulk Cu2O below 400 mK, by directly visualizing the exciton cloud in real space using mid-infrared induced absorption imaging that we realized in a dilution refrigerator. Our study shows that the paraexciton condensate is undetectable by conventional luminescence spectroscopy. We find an unconventionally small condensate fraction of 0.016 with the spatial profile of the condensate well described by mean-field theory. Our discovery of this new type of BEC in the purely matter-like exciton system interacting with a cold phonon bath could pave the way for the classification of its long-range order, and for essential understanding of quantum statistical mechanics of non-equilibrium open systems.
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.