Heat-assisted self-localization of exciton polaritons

TL;DR

This paper predicts a new stable self-localized state of exciton polaritons caused by heat-induced energy shifts, using a driven-dissipative model, and explores its formation and stability in microcavity structures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel thermally-induced self-trapping mechanism for exciton polaritons and predicts a sink-type localized solution supported by heat effects.

Findings

Predicted a stable localized polariton state supported by thermal self-trapping.

Analyzed formation and stability of these states from white noise.

Connected the state to bosonic star models via self-gravity analogy.

Abstract

Bosonic condensation of microcavity polaritons is accompanied by their relaxation from the ensemble of excited states into a single quantum state. The excess of energy is transferred to the crystal lattice that eventually involves heating of the structure. Creation of the condensate results in the local increase of the temperature which leads to the red shift of the exciton energy providing the mechanism for polariton self-trapping. By employing the driven-dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii model we predict a new type of a stable localized solution supported by the thermally-induced self-trapping in a one-dimensional microcavity structure. The predicted solution is of a sink-type i.e. it is characterized by the presence of converging density currents. We examine the spontaneous formation of these states from the white noise under spatially localized pumping and analyze the criteria for their stability. The collective bosonic polaron state described here may be considered as a toy model for studies of bosonic stars formed due to the self-gravity effect.