10/07/2015, 10:00 — 11:30 — Sala P3.10, Pavilhão de Matemática
Sven Höfling, Wuerzburg University and University of St Andrews
Exciton-polariton condensates
Semiconductor diode lasers play a major role in everyday life in our information society. These lasers generate coherent light by stimulated emission of photons. In contrast, laser-like operation can be obtained also by stimulated scattering of bosonic quasiparticles called exciton-polaritons into the ground state of strongly coupled light-matter systems in microcavities. This polariton laser or dynamic and non-equilibrium polariton condensate regime can be reached with pump thresholds lower than conventional lasing. The exciton-polaritons decay by the leakage of photons from a cavity, which produces a monochromatic and coherent light output. In this talk, we discuss the electrical injection of exciton-polaritons into microcavity structures and the formation of exciton-polariton condensates in lattice structures with deep and tailorable confinement potential.