Targeted Polariton Flow Through Tailored Photonic Defects

TL;DR

This paper explores how tailored photonic defects in microcavities can direct polariton flow, leveraging non-Hermitian physics to create functional optical elements with potential applications in polariton-based devices.

Contribution

It demonstrates that local losses introduced by photonic defects can control polariton currents, revealing new ways to manipulate polariton condensates using non-Hermitian effects.

Findings

Losses via photonic defects induce directed polariton currents.

Polariton interactions influence flow control mechanisms.

Tailoring decay times enhances polariton condensate manipulation.

Abstract

In non-Hermitian open quantum systems, such as polariton condensates, local tailoring of gains and losses opens up an interesting possibility to realize functional optical elements. Here, we demonstrate that deliberately introducing losses via a photonic defect, realized by reducing the quality factor of a DBR mirror locally within an ultrahigh-quality microcavity, may be utilized to create directed polariton currents towards the defect. We discuss the role of polariton-polariton interactions in the process and how to tailor the effective decay time of a polariton condensate via coupling to the defect. Our results highlight the far-reaching potential of non-Hermitian physics in polaritonics.