Spontaneous Polariton Currents in Periodic Lateral Chains

• Main Authors: Nalitov, A. V., Liew, Timothy Chi Hin, Kavokin, A. V., Altshuler, B. L., Rubo, Y. G.
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Periodic modulation; Lateral chains
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/85491; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/43717
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We predict spontaneous generation of superfluid polariton currents in planar microcavities with lateral periodic modulation of both the potential and decay rate. A spontaneous breaking of spatial inversion symmetry of a polariton condensate emerges at a critical pumping, and the current direction is stochastically chosen. We analyze the stability of the current with respect to the fluctuations of the condensate. A peculiar spatial current domain structure emerges, where the current direction is switched at the domain walls, and the characteristic domain size and lifetime scale with the pumping power.