Dynamic acousto-optical control of confined polariton condensates: From single traps to coupled lattices

Abstract

Microcavity exciton-polaritons, strongly mixed light-matter states, are promising candidates for novel solid-state photonic devices such as classical and quantum simulators, qubits, and topologically protected photonic on-chip circuitry. Although different schemes for creation of confined polariton states and lattices have been proposed, a unified approach for the advanced preparation and dynamic manipulation of individual confined states, as well as for the control of interactions between remote states, is still missing. Here, we introduce a solid-state platform for dynamic polariton control based on the combination of intracavity potential traps, defined by a spatial modulation of the microcavity thickness, with dynamic control via nonlinear polariton-polariton interactions, as well as time and spatially dependent strain fields. We first demonstrate important functionalities of the platform, such as dynamic control of the energy and internal degrees of freedom, as well as the energy matching of neighboring traps. We then show the coherent modulation and symmetry control of a lattice of coupled traps by strain fields, which enables the creation of dynamic states within the band gap of the lattice. Important characteristics of the acoustic modulation are that it maintains the coherence of macroscopic polariton states and does not depend on polariton density, thus being applicable down to the single-polariton level. These functionalities of the strongly nonlinear, tunable, and spatially compact polariton platform are well described by a theoretical framework and represent important steps towards tunable polaritonic devices based on lattices of interacting polariton traps.