No Arabic abstract
A quantum fluid passing an obstacle behaves differently from a classical one. When the flow is slow enough, the quantum gas enters a superfluid regime and neither whirlpools nor waves form around the obstacle. For higher flow velocities, it has been predicted that the perturbation induced by the defect gives rise to the turbulent emission of quantised vortices and to the nucleation of solitons. Using an interacting Bose gas of exciton-polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity, we report the transition from superfluidity to the hydrodynamic formation of oblique dark solitons and vortex streets in the wake of a potential barrier. The direct observation of these topological excitations provides key information on the mechanisms of superflow and shows the potential of polariton condensates for quantum turbulence studies.
We study a two-dimensional incoherently pumped exciton-polariton condensate described by an open-dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the polariton dynamics coupled to a rate equation for the exciton density. Adopting a hydrodynamic approach, we use multiscale expansion methods to derive several models appearing in the context of shallow water waves with viscosity. In particular, we derive a Boussinesq/Benney-Luke type equation and its far-field expansion in terms of Kadomtsev-Petviashvili-I (KP-I) equations for right- and left-going waves. From the KP-I model, we predict the existence of vorticity-free, weakly (algebraically) localized two-dimensional dark-lump solitons. We find that, in the presence of dissipation, dark lumps exhibit a lifetime three times larger than that of planar dark solitons. Direct numerical simulations show that dark lumps do exist, and their dissipative dynamics is well captured by our analytical approximation. It is also shown that lump-like and vortex-like structures can spontaneously be formed as a result of the transverse snaking instability of dark soliton stripes.
We study the properties of propagating polariton wave-packets and their connection to the stability of doubly charged vortices. Wave-packet propagation and related photoluminescence spectra exhibit a rich behaviour dependent on the excitation regime. We show that, because of the non-quadratic polariton dispersion, doubly charged vortices are stable only when initiated in wave-packets propagating at small velocities. Vortices propagating at larger velocities, or those imprinted directly into the polariton optical parametric oscillator (OPO) signal and idler are always unstable to splitting.
We study exciton-polariton nonlinear optical fluids in a high momentum regime for the first time. Defects in the fluid develop into dark solitons whose healing length decreases with increasing density. We deduce interaction constants for continuous wave polaritons an order of magnitude larger than with picosecond pulses. Time dependent measurements show a 100ps time for the buildup of the interaction strength suggesting a self-generated excitonic reservoir as the source of the extra nonlinearity. The experimental results agree well with a model of coupled photons, excitons and the reservoir.
The experimental investigation of spontaneously created vortices is of utmost importance for the understanding of quantum phase transitions towards a superfluid phase, especially for two dimensional systems that are expected to be governed by the Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics. By means of time resolved near-field interferometry we track the path of such vortices, created at random locations in an exciton-polariton condensate under pulsed non-resonant excitation, to their final pinning positions imposed by the stationary disorder. We formulate a theoretical model that successfully reproduces the experimental observations.
We study the necessary condition under which a resonantly driven exciton polariton superfluid flowing against an obstacle can generate turbulence. The value of the critical velocity is well estimated by the transition from elliptic to hyperbolic of an operator following ideas developed by Frisch, Pomeau, Rica for a superfluid flow around an obstacle, though the nature of equations governing the polariton superfluid is quite different. We find analytical estimates depending on the pump amplitude and on the pump energy detuning, quite consistent with our numerical computations.