Polaritonic Rabi and Josephson Oscillations

TL;DR

This paper provides a unified theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics of coupled polariton condensates, including effects of detuning, interactions, and decay, revealing new phenomena in Rabi and Josephson oscillations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model that incorporates detuning, self-interactions, and finite lifetime, extending the understanding of polariton condensate dynamics beyond traditional atomic systems.

Findings

Identification of conditions for Rabi and Josephson regimes with detuning and decay

Analysis of phase behavior including running and oscillating phases

Generalized stability criteria for fixed points on the Bloch sphere

Abstract

The dynamics of coupled condensates is a wide-encompassing problem with relevance to superconductors, BECs in traps, superfluids, etc. Here, we provide a unified picture of this fundamental problem that includes i) detuning of the free energies, ii) different self-interaction strengths and iii) finite lifetime of the modes. At such, this is particularly relevant for the dynamics of polaritons, both for their internal dynamics between their light and matter constituents, as well as for the more conventional dynamics of two spatially separated condensates. Polaritons are short-lived, interact only through their material fraction and are easily detuned. At such, they bring several variations to their atomic counterpart. We show that the combination of these parameters results in important twists to the phenomenology of the Josephson effect, such as the behaviour of the relative phase (running or oscillating) or the occurrence of self-trapping. We undertake a comprehensive stability analysis of the fixed points on a normalized Bloch sphere, that allows us to provide a generalized criterion to identify the Rabi and Josephson regimes in presence of detuning and decay.