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Dynamics of Vortices and Dark Solitons in Polariton Superfluids

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Physics of Quantum Fluids

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences ((SSSOL,volume 177))

Abstract

In this chapter we describe some observations linked with turbulence in quantum fluids of polaritons. We imprint a given velocity and density to the polariton fluid by using an appropriate pulse intensity and wavevector. The flow is then perturbed by a natural defect or more interestingly, by engineered traps with a well defined potential change. The flow of the fluid is measured in a time resolved fashion through the use of homodyne detection. Both the intensity and the phase of the fluid can then be retrieved with a picosecond resolution. This allows observing the nucleation of quantized vortices, with the appropriate 2π phase shift around the core, or the growth of dark solitons in the wake of the obstacle. The dark solitons are observed to decay into vortex streets. Our results are compared to dynamical solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and a very good agreement is obtained allowing us to hold good confidence in our interpretation.

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Acknowledgements

This work is inspired from the successive PhD works in my group (but not only as I integrate in this review the works of Pascale Senellart, Maxime Richard, Jacek Kasprzak and others), over the passed 15 years, starting from the PhD of Michele Saba, when we first envisaged the possibility of condensation of polaritons and designed an original way to produce efficient trapping of polaritons. It has been more particularly based on the PhD work of Gael Nardin, and on the ongoing work of Gabriele Grosso. The sample that we have used in the present study has been grown By François Morier-Genoud, with the very clever techniques allowing to prepare the mesas. This work has been made possible by what I call the dream team of LOEQ with, in order of appearance on stage, Stefan Kundermann, Jacek Kasprzak, Reda Idrissi Kaitouni, Ounsi El Daïf, Konstantinos Lagoudakis, Taofiq Paraïso, Gael Nardin, Roland Cerna, Verena Kohnle, Francesco Manni and Gabriele Grosso. It has also been supported very strongly by a group of extremely talented postdocs, that I wish to congratulate warmly for their outstanding work: Maxime Richard, Augustin Baas, Thierry Guillet, Barbara Pietka and, last but not least Yoan Léger. I also would like to convey my most sincere thanks to the theoreticians who allowed us to understand our results, by spending enough time with us, and by putting into simple words the results of their equations. In particular, Natalia Berloff, Michiel Wouters, Vincenzo Savona, Cristiano Ciuti, Alexei Kavokin and Yuri Rubo deserve very special acknowledgements. Antonio Quattropani and Paolo Schwendiman have also helped with many discussions and their indefectible support of theorist-experimentalist collaborations. Last, but not least, this work would not have been possible without the very close collaboration with the group of Dang in Grenoble, and in particular without the very high quality samples prepared by Régis André. The work has been carried out within the framework of the Quantum Photonics National Center of Competence in research financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation through the Quantum Photonics National Center of excellence in research and through successive SNF projects 2000020-135003, 200020-134789, 206021-128816, 206021-121496, 200020-107612. Complementary funding for conferences and meetings has been obtained through the Latsis Foundation, the Polatom network of the European Science Foundation. A King Saud University associate professorship is also deeply acknowledged.

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  1. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Benoit Deveaud, Gael Nardin, Gabriele Grosso & Yoan Léger

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  1. Benoit Deveaud
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  2. Gael Nardin
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  3. Gabriele Grosso
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  4. Yoan Léger
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Correspondence to Benoit Deveaud .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Place Jussieu 4, Paris, 75005, France

    Alberto Bramati

  2. del Pais Vasco, UPV/EHU, Dpto. de Fisica Téorica e Historia, IKERBASQUE & Universidad, Apdo. 644, Bilbao, 48080, Spain

    Michele Modugno

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Deveaud, B., Nardin, G., Grosso, G., Léger, Y. (2013). Dynamics of Vortices and Dark Solitons in Polariton Superfluids. In: Bramati, A., Modugno, M. (eds) Physics of Quantum Fluids. Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences, vol 177. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37569-9_6

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