In
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
, the exciton–polariton is a type of
polariton
In physics, polaritons are bosonic quasiparticles resulting from strong coupling of electromagnetic waves (photon) with an electric or magnetic dipole-carrying excitation (state) of solid or liquid matter (such as a phonon, plasmon, or an exc ...
; a hybrid
light
Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...
and
matter
In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...
quasiparticle
In condensed matter physics, a quasiparticle is a concept used to describe a collective behavior of a group of particles that can be treated as if they were a single particle. Formally, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely relate ...
arising from the strong coupling of the electromagnetic dipolar oscillations of
exciton
An exciton is a bound state of an electron and an electron hole which are attracted to each other by the electrostatic Coulomb's law, Coulomb force resulting from their opposite charges. It is an electrically neutral quasiparticle regarded as ...
s (either in bulk or
quantum well
A quantum well is a potential well with only discrete energy values.
The classic model used to demonstrate a quantum well is to confine particles, which were initially free to move in three dimensions, to two dimensions, by forcing them to occup ...
s) and
photons
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that ...
. Because light excitations are observed classically as
photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...
s, which are massless particles, they do not therefore have
mass
Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
, like a physical particle. This property makes them a quasiparticle.
Theory
The coupling of the two oscillators,
photons
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that ...
modes in the semiconductor
optical microcavity
An optical microcavity or microresonator is a structure formed by reflecting faces on the two sides of a spacer layer or optical medium, or by wrapping a waveguide in a circular fashion to form a ring. The former type is a standing wave cavity, and ...
and
exciton
An exciton is a bound state of an electron and an electron hole which are attracted to each other by the electrostatic Coulomb's law, Coulomb force resulting from their opposite charges. It is an electrically neutral quasiparticle regarded as ...
s of the
quantum well
A quantum well is a potential well with only discrete energy values.
The classic model used to demonstrate a quantum well is to confine particles, which were initially free to move in three dimensions, to two dimensions, by forcing them to occup ...
s, results in the energy
anticrossing of the bare oscillators, giving rise to the two new
normal mode
A normal mode of a dynamical system is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the system move sinusoidally with the same frequency and with a fixed phase relation. The free motion described by the normal modes takes place at fixed frequencies ...
s for the system, known as the upper and lower polariton resonances (or branches). The energy shift is proportional to the coupling strength (dependent, e.g., on the field and polarization overlaps). The higher energy or upper mode (UPB, upper polariton branch) is characterized by the photonic and exciton fields oscillating in-phase, while the LPB (lower polariton branch) mode is characterized by them oscillating with phase-opposition. Microcavity exciton–polaritons inherit some properties from both of their roots, such as a light effective mass (from the photons) and a capacity to interact with each other (from the strong exciton nonlinearities) and with the environment (including the internal
phonons
A phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. In the context of optically trapped objects ...
, which provide thermalization, and the outcoupling by radiative losses). In most cases the interactions are repulsive, at least between polariton quasi-particles of the same spin type (intra-spin interactions) and the nonlinearity term is positive (increase of total energy, or blueshift, upon increasing density).
Researchers also studied the long-range transport in organic materials linked to optical microcavities and demonstrated that exciton-polaritons propagate over several microns. This was done in order to prove that exciton-polaritons propagate over several microns and that the interplay between the molecular disorder and long-range correlations induced by coherent mixing with light leads to a mobility transition between diffusive and ballistic transport.
Other features
Polaritons are also characterized by non-parabolic
energy
Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
–
momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...
dispersion relations
In the physical sciences and electrical engineering, dispersion relations describe the effect of dispersion on the properties of waves in a medium. A dispersion relation relates the wavelength or wavenumber of a wave to its frequency. Given the d ...
, which limit the validity of the parabolic
effective-mass approximation to a small range of momenta.
They also have a
spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles
* Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
degree-of-freedom, making them
spinorial fluids able to sustain different
polarization
Polarization or polarisation may refer to:
Mathematics
*Polarization of an Abelian variety, in the mathematics of complex manifolds
*Polarization of an algebraic form, a technique for expressing a homogeneous polynomial in a simpler fashion by ...
textures. Exciton-polaritons are composite
bosons
In particle physics, a boson ( ) is a subatomic particle whose spin quantum number has an integer value (0, 1, 2, ...). Bosons form one of the two fundamental classes of subatomic particle, the other being fermions, which have half odd-integer ...
which can be observed to form
Bose–Einstein condensate
In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low Density, densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero#Relation with Bose–Einste ...
s,
and sustain
polariton superfluid Polariton superfluid is predicted to be a state of the exciton-polaritons system that combines the characteristics of lasers with those of excellent electrical conductors. Researchers look for this state in a solid state optical microcavity coupled ...
ity and
quantum vortices
and are prospected for emerging technological applications.
Many experimental works currently focus on
polariton lasers,
optically addressed transistors, nonlinear states such as solitons and shock waves, long-range coherence properties and
phase transition
In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic Sta ...
s, quantum vortices and spinorial patterns. Modelization of exciton-polariton fluids mainly rely on the use of GPE (
Gross–Pitaevskii equations) which are in the form of
nonlinear Schrödinger equations
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathem ...
.
See also
*
Bose–Einstein condensation of polaritons
Bose–Einstein condensation of polaritons is a growing field in semiconductor optics research, which exhibits spontaneous coherence similar to a laser, but through a different mechanism. A continuous transition from polariton condensation to las ...
*
Bose–Einstein condensation of quasiparticles
Bose–Einstein condensation can occur in quasiparticles, particles that are effective descriptions of collective excitations in materials. Some have integer spins and can be expected to obey Bose–Einstein statistics like traditional particles. ...
*
Polariton
In physics, polaritons are bosonic quasiparticles resulting from strong coupling of electromagnetic waves (photon) with an electric or magnetic dipole-carrying excitation (state) of solid or liquid matter (such as a phonon, plasmon, or an exc ...
*
Polariton superfluid Polariton superfluid is predicted to be a state of the exciton-polaritons system that combines the characteristics of lasers with those of excellent electrical conductors. Researchers look for this state in a solid state optical microcavity coupled ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
YouTube animation explaining what a polariton is in a semiconductor micro-resonator.Description of experimental research on polariton fluids at the Institute of Nanotechnologies within the Italian CNR.
Quasiparticles