Exciton-polariton condensate

An exciton-polariton condensate has coherent macroscopic occupation of an exciton–photon hybrid mode. Finite photon lifetime makes it an open system: pumping a noncondensed reservoir can replenish condensate losses. A condensate equation coupled to a reservoir-rate equation describes gain saturation, interaction shifts and reservoir feedback; it need not possess a conserved Hamiltonian.

For the cubic complex Ginzburg–Landau equation with $\alpha ,\beta >0$, $\Psi =\sqrt{\alpha /\beta }{e}^{-i\mu t}$ is spatially uniform, with $\mu =g\alpha /\beta -s$. In the reservoir reduction of a polariton condensate, its pump threshold is $P_{\mathrm{th}}={\gamma }_C{\gamma }_R/R_R$ and its number density is $({\gamma }_R/R_R)(1-P_{\mathrm{th}}/P)$. The full two-field homogeneous model instead gives $(P-P_{\mathrm{th}})/{\gamma }_C$. These agree near threshold only to the expansion's accuracy. Existence of the homogeneous solution does not imply stability for arbitrary interaction coefficients.

For reservoir kinetics ${\mathcal{R}}_t=-({\gamma }_R+R_{R}n)\mathcal{R}+P$, adiabatic elimination gives $\mathcal{R}=P/({\gamma }_R+R_{R}n)$. Expanding for $R_{R}n/{\gamma }_R\ll 1$ and inserting into the condensate equation gives a complex Ginzburg–Landau equation withFast reservoir response and weak depletion are separate assumptions. Without the number density expansion the gain is saturable, not cubic. The coefficients depend on position when the pump does.