Superfluid currents in half-moon polariton condensates

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the creation and control of half-moon shaped exciton-polariton condensates in microcavities, revealing phase behaviors akin to quantum two-level systems and enabling switchable superfluid currents.

Contribution

It introduces a novel half-moon geometry for polariton condensates and shows how to manipulate their phase currents by adjusting excitation positions.

Findings

Half-moon condensates exhibit a  phase jump and gradual phase variation.

Switching between clockwise and counter-clockwise currents is achieved by shifting excitation.

Half-moon condensates mimic features of quantum flux qubits.

Abstract

We excite exciton-polariton condensates in half-moon shapes by the non-resonant optical excitation of GaAs-based cylindrical pillar microcavities. In this geometry, the {\pi}-jump of the phase of the condensate wave function coexists with a gradual {\pm \pi} phase variation between two horns of the half-moon. We switch between clockwise and counter-clockwise phase currents by slightly shifting the excitation spot on the surface of the pillar. Half-moon condensates are expected to reveal features of two-level quantum systems similar to superconducting flux qubits