Quasi-compactons and bistability in exciton-polariton condensates

TL;DR

This paper investigates stationary localized solutions in exciton-polariton condensates supported by a narrow pump, discovering stable quasi-compactons and bistability phenomena influenced by pump width.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of quasi-compactons in exciton-polariton condensates and analyzes conditions leading to bistability without trapping potentials.

Findings

Stable quasi-compactons can exist without trapping potentials.

Bistability depends on pump beam width and can vanish for narrow beams.

Multiple stable and unstable solitons coexist under certain conditions.

Abstract

We address stationary patterns in exciton-polariton condensates supported by a narrow external pump beam, and we discover that even in the absence of trapping potentials, such condensates may support stable localized stationary dissipative solutions (quasi-compactons), whose field decays faster than exponentially or even vanishes everywhere outside the pump spot. More general conditions lead to dissipative solitons which may display bistability. The bistability in exciton-polariton condensates, which manifests itself in simultaneous existence of two stable and one unstable localized solitons with different amplitudes, widths, and exciton-photon fractions under the same physical conditions, strongly depends on the width of pump beam and is found to disappear for sufficiently narrow pump beams.