Schofield, R.C. orcid.org/0000-0003-4323-3990, Fu, M. orcid.org/0000-0003-2087-5595, Clarke, E. orcid.org/0000-0002-8287-0282 et al. (9 more authors) (2024) Bose–Einstein condensation of light in a semiconductor quantum well microcavity. Nature Photonics, 18. pp. 1083-1089. ISSN 1749-4885
Abstract
When particles with integer spin accumulate at low temperature and high density, they undergo Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC). Atoms, magnons, solid-state excitons, surface plasmon polaritons and excitons coupled to light exhibit BEC, which results in high coherence due to massive occupation of the respective system’s ground state. Surprisingly, photons were shown to exhibit BEC recently in organic-dye-filled optical microcavities, which—owing to the photon’s low mass—occurs at room temperature. Here we demonstrate that photons within an inorganic semiconductor microcavity also thermalize and undergo BEC. Although semiconductor lasers are understood to operate out of thermal equilibrium, we identify a region of good thermalization in our system where we can clearly distinguish laser action from BEC. Semiconductor microcavities are a robust system for exploring the physics and applications of quantum statistical photon condensates. In practical terms, photon BECs offer their critical behaviour at lower thresholds than lasers. Our study shows two further advantages: the lack of dark electronic states in inorganic semiconductors allows these BECs to be sustained continuously; and quantum wells offer stronger photon–photon scattering. We measure an unoptimized interaction parameter ( g̃ ≳ 10–3), which is large enough to access the rich physics of interactions within BECs, such as superfluid light.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Condensed-matter physics; Quantum optics; Semiconductor lasers |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Oct 2024 13:17 |
Last Modified: | 09 Oct 2024 13:17 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41566-024-01491-2 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41566-024-01491-2 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:218044 |