Time-periodic driving of a bath-coupled open quantum gas of light

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a photon Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to dye molecules responds to time-periodic driving, revealing a transition from overdamped to resonant behavior as photon number increases, which aids understanding of driven-dissipative quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a spectral response measurement method for photon condensates under periodic driving, highlighting the transition from closed to open system dynamics.

Findings

Response transitions from overdamped to resonant with increasing photon number

Spectroscopy reveals phase-sensitive collective excitations

Method enables studies of driven-dissipative quantum systems

Abstract

We study the frequency-resolved density response of a photon Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a bath of dye molecules by time-periodic driving. By monitoring the photon number dynamics for different drive frequencies, we obtain the spectral response of the condensate in a phase-sensitive way. We find that as the photon number increases, the response of the coupled condensate-bath system transitions from overdamped to resonant behavior, indicating a transition from closed to open system dynamics. Our spectroscopy method paves the way for studies of collective excitations in complex driven-dissipative systems.