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Superfluidity and Hydrodynamic Topological Excitations of Microcavity Polaritons

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Exciton Polaritons in Microcavities

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences ((SSSOL,volume 172))

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Abstract

Bosonic condensates subject to interactions may give rise to the phenomenon of superfluidity. This is the case of polaritons in semiconductor microcavities, in which superfluidity is manifested in a number of effects like the frictionless flow, persistence of currents, or the quantisation of the angular momentum of the fluid. The dissipative nature of polaritons, determined by their finite lifetime, results in specific properties diverting notably from equilibrium systems like Bose–Einstein condensates of alkali atoms. In the first part of this chapter we describe the superfluidity of polaritons attending to the propagation characteristics of these gases in the presence of a potential barrier. We concentrate our analysis on the body of available experimental results, which can be well understood in terms of the shape of the spectra of excitations. We devote the second part of the chapter to the conditions for the break up of superfluidity via the nucleation of hydrodynamic topological excitations, i.e. quantised vortex pairs and solitons. We discuss how the out-of-equilibrium nature of polariton condensates favours the nucleation of these excitations, opening the way to novel turbulent regimes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS-Laboratoire de Photonique et Nanostructures, Marcoussis, France

    A. Amo

  2. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, École Normale Supérieure et CNRS, Paris, France

    A. Bramati

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  1. A. Amo
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Correspondence to A. Amo .

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  1. Institute of Solid State Physics, Institutskaya 2, Chernogolovka, 142432, Russia

    Vladislav Timofeev

  2. NNL, Istituto Nanoscienze - CNR, Via Arnesano, Lecce, 73100, Italy

    Daniele Sanvitto

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Amo, A., Bramati, A. (2012). Superfluidity and Hydrodynamic Topological Excitations of Microcavity Polaritons. In: Timofeev, V., Sanvitto, D. (eds) Exciton Polaritons in Microcavities. Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences, vol 172. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24186-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24186-4_7

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