Strain-assisted optomechanical coupling of polariton condensate spin to a micromechanical resonator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the coupling between the spin and intensity of an exciton-polariton condensate and the mechanical vibrations of a microcavity membrane, revealing spin-phonon interactions in a coherent quantum system.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to optically induce and observe spin and intensity oscillations in a polariton condensate via mechanical vibrations of a microcavity.

Findings

Spin oscillations driven by vibrational strain.

Intensity oscillations caused by membrane displacement.

Evidence of spin-phonon coupling in a coherent condensate.

Abstract

We report spin and intensity coupling of an exciton-polariton condensate to the mechanical vibrations of a circular membrane microcavity. We optically drive the microcavity resonator at the lowest mechanical resonance frequency while creating an optically-trapped spin-polarized polariton condensate in different locations on the microcavity, and observe spin and intensity oscillations of the condensate at the vibration frequency of the resonator. Spin oscillations are induced by vibrational strain driving, whilst the modulation of the optical trap due to the displacement of the membrane causes intensity oscillations in the condensate emission. Our results demonstrate spin-phonon coupling in a macroscopically coherent condensate.