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Pushing Photons with Electrons: Observation of the Polariton Drag Effect

ORAL

Abstract

Exciton-polaritons are quasiparticles that are a superpositions of excitons and photons. In a microcavity, exciton-polaritons have an effective mass and can form a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Experimentally, this condensate can be generated by pumping light into a microcavity structure with quantum wells at the antinodes of the light field, and then we can measure the the energy, real-space and momentum-space distributions of the polaritons using the light they emit, using conventional optical methods.
In our experiment, we observed a change in the angle of emission of the photons when injecting electrons to the system, which indicates that the interaction of electrons with the polaritons changes the momentum of the polariton condensate. The condensate flow was accelerated when electrons flow with the same direction, while the condensate was slowed down when electrons flow in the opposite direction. Because the experiment is a photon-in, photon-out system, this is equivalent to steering photons using a DC electrical current.

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Presenters

  • Qi Yao

    Univ of Pittsburgh

Authors

  • Qi Yao

    Univ of Pittsburgh

  • David M Myers

    Polytechnique Montreal, Engineering Physics, Polytechnique Montreal

  • Burcu Ozden

    Pennsylvania State University, Penn State Abington

  • Jonathan Beaumariage

    Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Univ of Pittsburgh, Astronomy and Physics, University of Pittsburgh

  • Loren Pfeiffer

    Princeton University, Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Electrical engineering, Princeton university, Princeton Univ, Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, electrical engineering, Princeton, Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

  • Kenneth West

    Princeton University, Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Electrical engineering, Princeton university, Princeton Univ, Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, electrical engineering, Princeton, Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

  • David Wayne Snoke

    Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Univ of Pittsburgh, Astronomy and Physics, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh