Enhancing Ground-State Population and Macroscopic Coherence of Room-Temperature WS_{2} Polaritons through Engineered Confinement

Exciton polaritons (polaritons herein) in transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers have attracted significant attention due to their potential for polariton-based optoelectronics. Many of the proposed applications rely on the ability to trap polaritons and to reach macroscopic occupation of their ground energy state. Here, we engineer a trap for room-temperature polaritons in an all-dielectric optical microcavity by locally increasing the interactions between the WS_{2} excitons and cavity photons. The resulting confinement enhances the population and the first-order coherence of the polaritons in the ground state, with the latter effect related to dramatic suppression of disorder-induced inhomogeneous dephasing. We also demonstrate efficient population transfer into the trap when optically injecting free polaritons outside of its periphery.

Long-term follow-up study of post-COVID-19 patients

Aim. To evaluate dynamic changes in the lungs, hemostasis system, immune system in different terms after coronavirus pneumonia. Materials and methods. Ventilation-perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (CT), functional methods of lung investigation, evaluation of hemostasis system, immune status and specific humoral immune response were performed and evaluated in different terms after coronavirus pneumonia. A total of 71 patients were examined according to this protocol. We examined patients with the lesion volume not less than 50% according to chest CT. All patients were divided into 2 groups depending on the distance from the acute stage of coronavirus pneumonia. Group 1 included patients who were examined early (3060 days after hospital discharge), group 2 included patients who were examined later (61180 days after hospital discharge). Results. We obtained gradual regression of pathologically-modified tissue from 67.3% during the inpatient phase to 30.9% during the early period and to 19.7% during the late period of examination, according to CT scan of the chest organs. The same tendency was demonstrated by diffusion capacity of the lungs. Perfusion scintigraphy data showed a decrease in perfusion deficit from 26.012.8% during the early period of examination to 19.46.2% during the late period of examination. On the contrary, ventilatory scintigraphy demonstrates the increase of isotope passage time through the alveolar-capillary membrane over time (from 48.231.3 minutes in the early period to 83.637.2 minutes in the late period). An increase in D-dimer was detected in 24% of patients in the early group. The levels of inflammatory markers, indices of immune status, and specific humoral immune response did not differ in the two described groups. Conclusion. The results demonstrate gradual regression of pathological changes caused by coronavirus infection.

Direct measurement of a non-Hermitian topological invariant in a hybrid light-matter system

Topology is central to understanding and engineering materials that display robust physical phenomena immune to imperfections. Different topological phases of matter are characterized by topological invariants. In energy-conserving (Hermitian) systems, these invariants are determined by the winding of eigenstates in momentum space. In non-Hermitian systems, a topological invariant is predicted to emerge from the winding of the complex eigenenergies. Here, we directly measure the non-Hermitian topological invariant arising from exceptional points in the momentum-resolved spectrum of exciton polaritons. These are hybrid light-matter quasiparticles formed by photons strongly coupled to electron-hole pairs (excitons) in a halide perovskite semiconductor at room temperature. We experimentally map out both the real (energy) and imaginary (linewidth) parts of the spectrum near the exceptional points and extract the novel topological invariant—fractional spectral winding. Our work represents an essential step toward realization of non-Hermitian topological phases in a condensed matter system.

Collective Excitations of Exciton-Polariton Condensates in a Synthetic Gauge Field

Collective (elementary) excitations of quantum bosonic condensates, including condensates of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities, are a sensitive probe of interparticle interactions. In anisotropic microcavities with momentum-dependent transverse-electric-transverse-magnetic splitting of the optical modes, the excitations' dispersions are predicted to be strongly anisotropic, which is a consequence of the synthetic magnetic gauge field of the cavity, as well as the interplay between different interaction strengths for polaritons in the singlet and triplet spin configurations. Here, by directly measuring the dispersion of the collective excitations in a high-density optically trapped exciton-polariton condensate, we observe excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions for spinor polariton excitations. We extract the interaction constants for polaritons of the same and opposite spin and map out the characteristic spin textures in an interacting spinor condensate of exciton polaritons.

Low-Energy Collective Oscillations and Bogoliubov Sound in an Exciton-Polariton Condensate

We report the observation of low-energy, low-momenta collective oscillations of an exciton-polariton condensate in a round "box" trap. The oscillations are dominated by the dipole and breathing modes, and the ratio of the frequencies of the two modes is consistent with that of a weakly interacting two-dimensional trapped Bose gas. The speed of sound extracted from the dipole oscillation frequency is smaller than the Bogoliubov sound, which can be partly explained by the influence of the incoherent reservoir. These results pave the way for understanding the effects of reservoir, dissipation, energy relaxation, and finite temperature on the superfluid properties of exciton-polariton condensates and other two-dimensional open-dissipative quantum fluids.

Ultrathin Ga2 O3 Glass: A Large-Scale Passivation and Protection Material for Monolayer WS2

Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide crystals (TMDCs) have extraordinary optical properties that make them attractive for future optoelectronic applications. Integration of TMDCs into practical all-dielectric heterostructures hinges on the ability to passivate and protect them against necessary fabrication steps on large scales. Despite its limited scalability, encapsulation of TMDCs in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) currently has no viable alternative for achieving high performance of the final device. Here, it is shown that the novel, ultrathin Ga₂ O₃ glass is an ideal centimeter-scale coating material that enhances optical performance of the monolayers and protects them against further material deposition. In particular, Ga₂ O₃ capping of monolayer WS₂ outperforms commercial-grade hBN in both scalability and optical performance at room temperature. These properties make Ga₂ O₃ highly suitable for large-scale passivation and protection of monolayer TMDCs in functional heterostructures.

Nonreciprocal Transport of Exciton Polaritons in a Non-Hermitian Chain

We consider exciton polaritons in a zigzag chain of coupled elliptical micropillars subjected to incoherent excitation. The driven-dissipative nature of the system along with the naturally present polarization splitting inside the pillars gives rise to nonreciprocal dynamics, which eventually leads to the non-Hermitian skin effect, where all the modes of the system collapse to one edge. As a result, the polaritons propagate only in one direction along the chain, independent of the excitation position, and the propagation in the opposite direction is suppressed. The system shows robustness against disorder and, using the bistable nature of polaritons to encode information, we show one-way information transfer. This paves the way for compact and robust feedback-free one-dimensional polariton transmission channels without the need for external magnetic field, which are compatible with proposals for polaritonic circuits.

Controlled Ordering of Topological Charges in an Exciton-Polariton Chain

We demonstrate, experimentally and theoretically, controlled loading of an exciton-polariton vortex chain into a 1D array of trapping potentials. Switching between two types of vortex chains, with topological charges of the same or alternating signs, is achieved by appropriately shaping an off-resonant pump beam that drives the system to the regime of bosonic condensation. In analogy to spin chains, these vortex sequences realize either a "ferromagnetic" or an "antiferromagnetic" order, whereby the role of spin is played by the orbital angular momentum. The ferromagnetic ordering of vortices is associated with the formation of a persistent chiral current. Our results pave the way for the controlled creation of nontrivial distributions of orbital angular momentum and topological order in a periodic exciton-polariton system.

Chiral Modes at Exceptional Points in Exciton-Polariton Quantum Fluids

We demonstrate the generation of chiral modes-vortex flows with fixed handedness in exciton-polariton quantum fluids. The chiral modes arise in the vicinity of exceptional points (non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies) in an optically induced resonator for exciton polaritons. In particular, a vortex is generated by driving two dipole modes of the non-Hermitian ring resonator into degeneracy. Transition through the exceptional point in the space of the system's parameters is enabled by precise manipulation of real and imaginary parts of the closed-wall potential forming the resonator. As the system is driven to the vicinity of the exceptional point, we observe the formation of a vortex state with a fixed orbital angular momentum (topological charge). This method can be extended to generate higher-order orbital angular momentum states through coalescence of multiple non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies. Our Letter demonstrates the possibility of exploiting nontrivial and counterintuitive properties of waves near exceptional points in macroscopic quantum systems.

Exciton-polariton trapping and potential landscape engineering

Exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities have become a model system for the studies of dynamical Bose-Einstein condensation, macroscopic coherence, many-body effects, nonclassical states of light and matter, and possibly quantum phase transitions in a solid state. These low-mass bosonic quasiparticles can condense at comparatively high temperatures up to 300 K, and preserve the fundamental properties of the condensate, such as coherence in space and time domain, even when they are out of equilibrium with the environment. Although the presence of a confining potential is not strictly necessary in order to observe Bose-Einstein condensation, engineering of the polariton confinement is a key to controlling, shaping, and directing the flow of polaritons. Prototype polariton-based optoelectronic devices rely on ultrafast photon-like velocities and strong nonlinearities exhibited by polaritons, as well as on their tailored confinement. Nanotechnology provides several pathways to achieving polariton confinement, and the specific features and advantages of different methods are discussed in this review. Being hybrid exciton-photon quasiparticles, polaritons can be trapped via their excitonic as well as photonic component, which leads to a wide choice of highly complementary trapping techniques. Here, we highlight the almost free choice of the confinement strengths and trapping geometries that provide powerful means for control and manipulation of the polariton systems both in the semi-classical and quantum regimes. Furthermore, the possibilities to observe effects of the polariton blockade, Mott insulator physics, and population of higher-order energy bands in sophisticated lattice potentials are discussed. Observation of such effects could lead to realization of novel polaritonic non-classical light sources and quantum simulators.

Talbot Effect for Exciton Polaritons

We demonstrate, experimentally and theoretically, a Talbot effect for hybrid light-matter waves-an exciton-polariton condensate formed in a semiconductor microcavity with embedded quantum wells. The characteristic "Talbot carpet" is produced by loading the exciton-polariton condensate into a microstructured one-dimensional periodic array of mesa traps, which creates an array of phase-locked sources for coherent polariton flow in the plane of the quantum wells. The spatial distribution of the Talbot fringes outside the mesas mimics the near-field diffraction of a monochromatic wave on a periodic amplitude and phase grating with the grating period comparable to the wavelength. Despite the lossy nature of the polariton system, the Talbot pattern persists for distances exceeding the size of the mesas by an order of magnitude. Thus, our experiment demonstrates efficient shaping of the two-dimensional flow of coherent exciton polaritons by a one-dimensional "flat lens."

Observation of non-Hermitian degeneracies in a chaotic exciton-polariton billiard

Exciton-polaritons are hybrid light-matter quasiparticles formed by strongly interacting photons and excitons (electron-hole pairs) in semiconductor microcavities. They have emerged as a robust solid-state platform for next-generation optoelectronic applications as well as for fundamental studies of quantum many-body physics. Importantly, exciton-polaritons are a profoundly open (that is, non-Hermitian) quantum system, which requires constant pumping of energy and continuously decays, releasing coherent radiation. Thus, the exciton-polaritons always exist in a balanced potential landscape of gain and loss. However, the inherent non-Hermitian nature of this potential has so far been largely ignored in exciton-polariton physics. Here we demonstrate that non-Hermiticity dramatically modifies the structure of modes and spectral degeneracies in exciton-polariton systems, and, therefore, will affect their quantum transport, localization and dynamical properties. Using a spatially structured optical pump, we create a chaotic exciton-polariton billiard--a two-dimensional area enclosed by a curved potential barrier. Eigenmodes of this billiard exhibit multiple non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies, known as exceptional points. Such points can cause remarkable wave phenomena, such as unidirectional transport, anomalous lasing/absorption and chiral modes. By varying parameters of the billiard, we observe crossing and anti-crossing of energy levels and reveal the non-trivial topological modal structure exclusive to non-Hermitian systems. We also observe mode switching and a topological Berry phase for a parameter loop encircling the exceptional point. Our findings pave the way to studies of non-Hermitian quantum dynamics of exciton-polaritons, which may uncover novel operating principles for polariton-based devices.

Creation of orbital angular momentum states with chiral polaritonic lenses

Controlled transfer of orbital angular momentum to an exciton-polariton Bose-Einstein condensate spontaneously created under incoherent, off resonant excitation conditions is a long-standing challenge in the field of microcavity polaritonics. We demonstrate, experimentally and theoretically, a simple and efficient approach to the generation of nontrivial orbital angular momentum states by using optically induced potentials-chiral polaritonic lenses. These lenses are produced by a structured optical pump with a spatial distribution of intensity that breaks the chiral symmetry of the system.

Self-localization of polariton condensates in periodic potentials

We predict the existence of novel spatially localized states of exciton-polariton Bose-Einstein condensates in semiconductor microcavities with fabricated periodic in-plane potentials. Our theory shows that, under the conditions of continuous nonresonant pumping, localization is observed for a wide range of optical pump parameters due to effective potentials self-induced by the polariton flows in the spatially periodic system. We reveal that the self-localization of exciton-polaritons in the lattice may occur both in the gaps and bands of the single-particle linear spectrum, and is dominated by the effects of gain and dissipation rather than the structured potential, in sharp contrast to the conservative condensates of ultracold alkali atoms.

Spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in focusing, scattering, and imaging systems

We present a general theory of spin-to-orbital angular momentum (AM) conversion of light in focusing, scattering, and imaging optical systems. Our theory employs universal geometric transformations of non-paraxial optical fields in such systems and allows for direct calculation and comparison of the AM conversion efficiency in different physical settings. Observations of the AM conversions using local intensity distributions and far-field polarimetric measurements are discussed.

Controlled transport of matter waves in two-dimensional optical lattices

We propose a method for achieving dynamically controllable transport of highly mobile matter-wave solitons in a driven two-dimensional optical lattice. Our numerical analysis based on the mean-field model and the theory based on the time-averaging approach demonstrate that a fast time-periodic rocking of the two-dimensional optical lattice enables efficient stabilization and manipulation of spatially localized matter wave packets via induced reconfigurable mobility channels.

Optical nanoprobing via spin-orbit interaction of light

We show, both theoretically and experimentally, that high-numerical-aperture (NA) optical microscopy is accompanied by strong spin-orbit interaction of light, which translates fine information about the specimen to the polarization degrees of freedom of light. An 80 nm gold nanoparticle scattering the light in the focus of a high-NA objective generates angular momentum conversion, which is seen as a nonuniform polarization distribution at the exit pupil. We demonstrate remarkable sensitivity of the effect to the position of the nanoparticle: Its subwavelength displacement produces the giant spin-Hall effect, i.e., macroseparation of spins in the outgoing light. This brings forth a far-field optical nanoprobing technique based on the spin-orbit interaction of light.

Dynamics of matter-wave solitons in a ratchet potential

We study the dynamics of bright solitons formed in a Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive atomic interactions perturbed by a weak bichromatic optical lattice potential. The lattice depth is a biperiodic function of time with a zero mean, which realizes a flashing ratchet for matter-wave solitons. We find that the average velocity of a soliton and the soliton current induced by the ratchet depend on the number of atoms in the soliton. As a consequence, soliton transport can be induced through scattering of different solitons. In the regime when matter-wave solitons are narrow compared to the lattice period the dynamics is well described by the effective Hamiltonian theory.

Self-trapped nonlinear matter waves in periodic potentials

We demonstrate that the recent observation of nonlinear self-trapping of matter waves in one-dimensional optical lattices [Th. Anker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 020403 (2005)10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.020403] can be associated with a novel type of broad nonlinear state existing in the gaps of the matter-wave band-gap spectrum. We find these self-trapped localized modes in one-, two-, and three-dimensional periodic potentials, and demonstrate that such novel gap states can be generated experimentally in any dimension.

Coupled-mode theory for spatial gap solitons in optically induced lattices

We derive two systems of coupled-mode equations for spatial gap solitons in one-dimensional (1D) and quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) photonic lattices induced by two interfering optical beams in a nonlinear photorefractive crystal. The models differ from the ordinary coupled-mode system (e.g., for the fiber Bragg grating) by saturable nonlinearity and, if expanded to cubic terms, by the presence of four-wave-mixing terms. In the 1D system, solutions for stationary gap solitons are obtained in an implicit analytical form. For the Q1D model and for tilted ("moving") solitons in both models, solutions are found in a numerical form. The existence of stable tilted solitons in the full underlying model of the photonic lattice in the photorefractive medium is also shown. The stability of gap solitons is systematically investigated in direct simulations, revealing a nontrivial border of instability against oscillatory perturbations. In the Q1D model, two disjointed stability regions are found. The stability border of tilted solitons does not depend on the tilt. Interactions between stable tilted solitons are investigated too. The collisions are, chiefly, elastic, but they may be inelastic close to the instability border.

Matter-wave gap vortices in optical lattices

We predict the existence of spatially localized nontrivial topological states of a Bose-Einstein condensate with repulsive atomic interactions confined by an optical lattice. These nonlinear localized states, matter-wave gap vortices, carry a vortexlike phase dislocation and exist in the gaps of the matter-wave band-gap spectrum due to the Bragg scattering. We discuss the structure, stability, and formation dynamics of the gap vortices in the case of two-dimensional optical lattices.

Localization of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices

We study nonlinear localization of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Our theory shows that spin-dependent optical lattices can be used to effectively manipulate the nonlinear interactions between the BEC components, and to observe composite localized states of a BEC in both bands and gaps of the matter-wave spectrum.

Observation of discrete vortex solitons in optically induced photonic lattices

We report on the first experimental observation of discrete vortex solitons in two-dimensional optically induced photonic lattices. We demonstrate strong stabilization of an optical vortex by the lattice in a self-focusing nonlinear medium and study the generation of the discrete vortices from a broad class of singular beams.

Composite band-gap solitons in nonlinear optically induced lattices

We introduce novel optical solitons that consist of a periodic and a spatially localized component coupled nonlinearly via cross-phase modulation. The spatially localized optical field can be treated as a gap soliton supported by the optically induced nonlinear grating. We find different types of these band-gap composite solitons and demonstrate their dynamical stability.

Matter-wave gap solitons in atomic band-gap structures

We demonstrate that a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice forms a reconfigurable matter-wave structure with a band-gap spectrum, which resembles a nonlinear photonic crystal for light waves. We study in detail the case of a two-dimensional square optical lattice and show that this atomic band-gap structure allows nonlinear localization of atomic Bloch waves in the form of two-dimensional matter-wave gap solitons.

Dipole-mode vector solitons in anisotropic nonlocal self-focusing media

We demonstrate, theoretically and experimentally, that dipole-mode vector solitons created in biased photorefractive media possess a number of anisotropy-driven properties, such as stability of a selected orientation, wobbling, and incomplete rotation, owing to the anisotropic nonlocal response of the photorefractive non-linearity. Such features are found for higher-order (multipole) vector solitons, and they are carefully verified in an experiment.

Multipole spatial vector solitons

We introduce the concept of multipole spatial optical vector solitons associated with higher-order guided modes trapped by a soliton-induced waveguide in a bulk medium. Such stationary localized waves include previously predicted vortex- and dipole-mode vector solitons and also describe new higher-order vector solitons and necklace-type beams. We present the theoretical and experimental results of the structure, formation, and instability development of the quadrupole vector solitons.

Observation of dipole-mode vector solitons

We report on the first experimental observation of a novel type of optical vector soliton, a dipole-mode soliton, recently predicted theoretically. We show that these vector solitons can be generated in a photorefractive medium employing two different processes: a phase imprinting, and a symmetry-breaking instability of a vortex-mode vector soliton. The experimental results display remarkable agreement with the theory, and confirm the robust nature of these radially asymmetric two-component solitary waves.

Dipole-mode vector solitons

We find a new type of optical vector soliton that originates from trapping of a dipole mode by the soliton-induced waveguides. These solitons, which appear as a consequence of the vector nature of the two-component system, are more stable than the previously found optical vortex solitons and represent a new type of extremely robust nonlinear vector structure.

Vector solitons in (2 + 1) dimensions

We address the problem of the existence and stability of vector spatial solitons formed by two incoherently interacting optical beams in bulk Kerr and saturable media. We identify families of (2+1)-dimensional two-mode self-trapped beams, with and without a topological charge, and describe their properties analytically and numerically.

Linear and nonlinear waveguides induced by optical vortex solitons

We study, numerically and analytically, linear and nonlinear waveguides induced by optical vortex solitons in a Kerr medium. Both fundamental and first-order guided modes are analyzed, as well as cases of effective defocusing and focusing nonlinearity.

Observation of bound states of interacting vector solitons

We report experimental observation of bound states formed by two well-separated vector spatial solitons as the result of a force balance between vector-soliton components. We also demonstrate a link between such soliton bound states and two-hump, two-mode solitons, along with the induced coherence effect observed for incoherently interacting solitons.

Interaction between vector solitons and solitonic gluons

We describe a physical mechanism for creating multisoliton bound states by which optical solitons are glued together by attraction between the nonsoliton beams that they guide, solitonic gluons. We verify the concept of the solitonic gluons experimentally, observing a suppression of the repulsion between dark solitons owing to an attractive force acting between out-of-phase bright guided beams.

Nonlinear theory of soliton-induced waveguides

We develop a nonlinear theory of soliton-induced waveguides that describe a finite-amplitude probe beam guided by a spatial dark soliton in a saturable nonlinear medium. We suggest an effective way to control the interaction of these soliton-induced waveguides and also show that, in sharp contrast with scalar dark solitons, the dark-soliton waveguides can attract each other and even form stationary bound states.