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Persistent currents and quantized vortices in a polariton superfluid

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Sanvitto, D., Marchetti, F. M., Szymanska, M. H. (Marzena H.), Tosi, G., Baudisch, M., Laussy, F. P., Krizhanovskii, D. N., Skolnick, M. S., Marrucci, L., Lemaître, A., Bloch, J. (Jacqueline), Tejedor, C. and Viña, Luis. (2010) Persistent currents and quantized vortices in a polariton superfluid. Nature Physics, Vol.6 (No.7). pp. 527-533. ISSN 1745-2473

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS1668

Abstract

After the discovery of zero viscosity in liquid helium, other fundamental properties of the superfluidity phenomenon have been revealed. One of them, irrotational flow, gives rise to quantized vortices and persistent currents. Those are the landmarks of superfluidity in its modern understanding. Recently, a new variety of dissipationless fluid behaviour has been found in microcavities under the optical parametric regime. Here we report the observation of metastable persistent polariton superflows sustaining a quantized angular momentum, m, after applying a 2-ps laser pulse carrying a vortex state. We observe a transfer of angular momentum to the steady-state condensate, which sustains vorticity for as long as it can be tracked. Furthermore, we study the stability of quantized vortices with m = 2. The experiments are analysed using a generalized two-component Gross-Pitaevskii equation. These results demonstrate the control of metastable persistent currents and show the peculiar superfluid character of non-equilibrium polariton condensates.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Physics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Superfluidity, Polaritons
Journal or Publication Title:	Nature Physics
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:	1745-2473
Date:	July 2010
Volume:	Vol.6
Number:	No.7
Number of Pages:	7
Page Range:	pp. 527-533
Identification Number:	10.1038/nphys1668
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Spain. Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC), Spain. CAM, Spain. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
Grant number:	MAT2008-01555 (MEC), QOIT-CSD2006-00019 (MEC), S2009/ESP-1503 (CAM)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/5603