Rogue waves in exciton–polariton condensates under homogeneous pumping

We predict the emergence of rogue wave solutions in one-dimensional exciton–polariton condensates under homogeneous pumping. We model the condensate dynamics in a microwire using the dissipative Gross–Pitaevskii equation for the polariton field, with considers attractive nonlinearity, coupled to the rate equation of the excitonic reservoir density. With the help of the direct ansatz method and similarity transformation, deformed first order rogue wave solutions are constructed and its dynamics analyzed. We show that the deformed rogue wave has a curved background controlled by the pump power and the strength of the nonlinear interaction of polaritons. Moreover, the maximal population of the polaritons appears where high energy of rogue wave is concentrated.     

Vortices in dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates in synthetic magnetic field

We study the formation of vortices in a dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate in a synthetic magnetic field by numerically solving the Gross–Pitaevskii equation. The formation process depends on the dipole strength, the rotating frequency, the potential geometry, and the orientation of the dipoles. We make an extensive comparison with vortices created by a rotating trap, especially focusing on the issues of the critical rotating frequency and the vortex number as a function of the rotating frequency. We observe that a higher rotating frequency is needed to generate a large number of vortices and the anisotropic interaction manifests itself as a perceptible difference in the vortex formation. Furthermore, a large dipole strength or aspect ratio also can increase the number of vortices effectively. In particular, we discuss the validity of the Feynman rule.     

Bose–Einstein condensates in magnetic waveguides

In this article, we describe an experimental system for generating Bose–Einstein condensates and controlling the shape and motion of a condensate by using miniaturised magnetic potentials. In particular, we describe the magnetic trap setup, the vacuum system, the use of dispenser sources for loading a high number of atoms into the magneto-optical trap, the magnetic transfer of atoms into the microtrap, and the experimental cycle for generating Bose–Einstein condensates. We present first results on outcoupling of condensates into a magnetic waveguide and discuss influences of the trap surface on the ultra-cold ensembles. Received: 21 August 2002 / Revised version: 10 December 2002 / Published online: 26 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-7071/295-829, E-mail: fortagh@pit.uni-tuebingen.de     

Controlled switching between quantum states in the exciton–polariton condensate

Optically controlled switching between modes of a polariton laser having different symmetries has been demonstrated experimentally. The microscopic shift of the optical excitation spot dramatically changes the shape of the polariton condensate formed in a cylindrical micropillar on the basis of the planar semiconductor microcavity. Switching between the ring and lobed condensate is achieved owing to the violation of the cylindrical symmetry of the effective potential formed by the lateral surface of the pillar and by the cloud of incoherent excitons created by optical pumping.     

Direct time domain observation of exciton–polariton oscillation in a semiconductor microcavity

We measured temporal evolution of the coherent emission from a semiconductor microcavity by an ac-balanced homodyne detector with high sensitivity and wide dynamic range. The experimental results can be well explained by the coupled exciton–photon model.     

Response of self-assembly for magnetite nanocrystal in magnetic fluid under an applied magnetic field

The response time and transmittivity of the magnetic fluid(MF)for different concentrations at room temperature were investigated in this letter.The volume fraction of the investigated sample ranged from 0.44% to 6.47%.It was found that the transmittivity decreased with increasing concentration under a given magnetic field,and the evolution time was changed with different concentrations.Moreover,the light intensity decreased rapidly at the beginning and then became stable when the magnetic field was applied.     

Spin-dependent polariton–polariton scattering in planar microcavities

We present a microscopic theory of polariton–polariton (PP) scattering in quantum microcavities, which is developed with allowance for the composite nature of polaritons. Analytical estimations of the effective scattering rate for PP scattering with parallel spin configuration are presented, and the role of dark excitons in the opposite spin configuration is discussed.     

Radiative dark–bright instability and the critical Casimir effect in DQW exciton condensates

It is already well known that radiative interband interaction in the excitonic normal liquid in semiconducting double quantum wells is responsible for a negligible splitting between the energies of the dark and bright excitons enabling us to consider a four fold spin degeneracy. This has also lead many workers to naively consider the same degeneracy in studying the condensate. On the other hand, the non-perturbative aspects of this interaction in the condensed phase, e.g. its consequences on the order parameter and the dark–bright mixture in the ground state have not been explored. In this work, we demonstrate that the ground state concentrations of the dark and the bright exciton condensates are dramatically different beyond a sharp interband coupling threshold where the contribution of the bright component in the ground state vanishes. This shows that the effect of the radiative interband interaction on the condensate is nonperturbative.We also observe in the free energy a discontinuous derivative with respect to the layer separation at the entrance to the condensed phase, indicating a strong critical Casimir force. An estimate of its strength shows that it is measurable. Measuring the Casimir force is challenging, but at the same time it has a conclusive power about the presence of the long sought for condensed phase.     

Motion of a 3D exciton in a magnetic field: Exciton-magnetoexciton “phase” transition

A rearrangement of the ground state of a Wannier-Mott exciton upon an increase in its momentum is considered. The phase diagram of the electron and the hole experiencing the Coulomb interaction on the magnetic momentum-external magnetic field plane is investigated. A jumplike exciton-magnetoexciton “phase” transition is observed upon an increase in the momentum in fields B weaker than a certain value B<B _tr1. As momentum P increases above a certain critical value P _tr(B), the ground state of the system changes from the hydrogen-like state polarized by the Lorentz force to the magnetoexciton state in which the average distance 〈 r〉 between the electron and the hole increases jumpwise in the transverse direction relative to the field. As the exciton momentum increases, its wave function is extended along the magnetic field, acquiring the shape of a strongly prolate ellipsoid. It is interesting that the momentum of the transition tends to a finite value P ₀>0 even for B→0. At the point of transition, the exciton energy-momentum relation changes jumpwise from a quadratic law to a relation virtually independent of the momentum. For B<B _tr1, the exciton-magnetoexciton transition becomes blurred.     

On possible light–torsion mixing in background magnetic field

The interaction of the light with propagating axial torsion fields in the presence of an external magnetic field has been investigated. Axial torsion fields appearing in higher derivative quantum gravity possess two states, with spin one and zero, with different masses. The torsion field with spin-0 state is a ghost that can be removed if its mass is infinite. We investigate the possibility when the light mixes with the torsion fields resulting in the effect of vacuum birefringence and dichroism. The expressions for ellipticity and the rotation of light polarization axis depending on the coupling constant and the external magnetic field have been obtained.     

Eigen electric moments and magnetic–dipolar vortices in quasi-2D ferrite disks

In a quasi-2D ferrite disk with a dominating role of magnetic–dipolar (non-exchange-interaction) spectra, one can observe the vortex structures. The vortices are guaranteed by the chiral edge states of magnetic–dipolar modes which result in appearance of eigen electric moments oriented normally to the disk plane. Due to the eigen-electric-moment properties, a ferrite disk placed in a microwave cavity is strongly affected by the cavity RF electric field with a clear evidence for multi-resonance oscillations. For different cavity parameters, one may observe the resonance absorption and resonance repulsion behaviors.     

Solitons in Bose–Einstein condensates

The Gross–Pitaevskii equation (GPE) describing the evolution of the Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) order parameter for weakly interacting bosons supports dark solitons for repulsive interactions and bright solitons for attractive interactions. After a brief introduction to BEC and a general review of GPE solitons, we present our results on solitons that arise in the BEC of hard-core bosons, which is a system with strongly repulsive interactions. For a given background density, this system is found to support both a dark soliton and an antidark soliton (i.e., a bright soliton on a pedestal) for the density profile. When the background has more (less) holes than particles, the dark (antidark) soliton solution dies down as its velocity approaches the sound velocity of the system, while the antidark (dark) soliton persists all the way up to the sound velocity. This persistence is in contrast to the behaviour of the GPE dark soliton, which dies down at the Bogoliubov sound velocity. The energy–momentum dispersion relation for the solitons is shown to be similar to the exact quantum low-lying excitation spectrum found by Lieb for bosons with a delta-function interaction.     

Laser patterning of Fe–Si–B amorphous ribbons in magnetic field

Site-specific nano-crystallization in an amorphous soft magnetic Fe–Si–B alloy was induced via laser processing on a magnetic substrate. The microstructure evolution was characterized using site-specific transmission electron microscopy, and the results are rationalized by diffusion-based calculations. A clear variation in grain-size and spatial distribution is observed at the center region compared with edge regions of the laser track. Additionally, the nano-crystalline phase exhibits a crystallographic texture at the edge region, whereas a random texture is obtained at the center of the laser track. The evolution of structure, size, and morphology of grains are explained by the influence of magnetic field-enhanced thermal effect on nucleation rate during crystallization.     

On a new mechanism of polariton–polariton scattering

Condensate states of a two-dimensional exciton–polariton system have been considered under the conditions of direct resonant photoexcitation. It has been theoretically predicted that splitting of eigenmodes with orthogonal polarizations leads to the emergence of a new channel of parametric scattering. A polariton condensate spontaneously decays into a set of states in a finite region of the momentum space, thus leading to a strong inhomogeneity in the distributions of the intensity and polarization even in the case of a strictly constant amplitude and zero in-plane momentum of the external field. The new scattering mechanism makes possible self-oscillating and chaotic states of polariton systems.     

Baxter–Wu model in the presence of an external magnetic field

In this work we study an unusual phase transition of the Baxter–Wu model in the presence of an external magnetic field. The model is pure Baxter–Wu, which means that only three-spin interactions are taken into account. We construct a phase diagram on the temperature–field plane based mainly on the singularities of the specific heat. These singularities are more clearly observed than those of the magnetic susceptibility which are used in existing works. We establish a discontinuity in the critical exponents when the field is changed from zero to negative.     

Exciton–polariton condensation

We review, aiming at an audience of final year undergraduates, the phenomena observed in, and properties of, microcavity exciton–polariton condensates. These are condensates of mixed light and matter, consisting of superpositions of photons in semiconductor microcavities and excitons in quantum wells. Because of the imperfect confinement of the photon component, exciton–polaritons have a finite lifetime, and have to be continuously re-populated. Therefore, exciton–polariton condensates lie somewhere between equilibrium Bose–Einstein condensates and lasers. We review in particular the evidence for condensation, the coherence properties studied experimentally, and the wide variety of spatial structures either observed or predicted to exist in exciton–polariton condensates, including quantised vortices and other coherent structures. We also discuss the question of superfluidity in a non-equilibrium system, reviewing both the experimental attempts to investigate superfluidity to date, and the theoretical suggestions of how it may be further elucidated.