Excitation of Vortices in Semiconductor Microcavities

TL;DR

This paper predicts a method to generate and observe polariton vortices with winding number 2 in semiconductor microcavities using polarization splitting and circularly polarized light, supported by analytical and numerical models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique for creating polariton vortices in microcavities based on polarization splitting and light polarization, combining analytical and numerical approaches.

Findings

Vortices can be excited with circularly polarized light without orbital angular momentum.

Vortices are observable as phase vortices in opposite circular polarization.

The model includes non-linear polariton-polariton interactions.

Abstract

We predict that the transverse electric-magnetic polarization splitting of exciton-polaritons allows a simple technique for the generation of polariton vortices of winding number 2 in semiconductor microcavities. The vortices can be excited by circularly polarized light having no orbital angular momentum and observed as phase vortices in the opposite circular polarization or directly as linear polarization vortices. The prediction is explained by a simplified analytical linear model and shown fully with a numerical model based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equations, which includes the non-linear effects of polariton-polariton interactions.