Light: Science & Applications (Mar 2021)

Spontaneously coherent orbital coupling of counterrotating exciton polaritons in annular perovskite microcavities

  • Jun Wang,
  • Huawen Xu,
  • Rui Su,
  • Yutian Peng,
  • Jinqi Wu,
  • Timothy C. H. Liew,
  • Qihua Xiong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-021-00478-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract Exciton-polariton condensation is regarded as a spontaneous macroscopic quantum phenomenon with phase ordering and collective coherence. By engineering artificial annular potential landscapes in halide perovskite semiconductor microcavities, we experimentally and theoretically demonstrate the room-temperature spontaneous formation of a coherent superposition of exciton-polariton orbital states with symmetric petal-shaped patterns in real space, resulting from symmetry breaking due to the anisotropic effective potential of the birefringent perovskite crystals. The lobe numbers of such petal-shaped polariton condensates can be precisely controlled by tuning the annular potential geometry. These petal-shaped condensates form in multiple orbital states, carrying locked alternating π phase shifts and vortex–antivortex superposition cores, arising from the coupling of counterrotating exciton-polaritons in the confined circular waveguide. Our geometrically patterned microcavity exhibits promise for realizing room-temperature topological polaritonic devices and optical polaritonic switches based on periodic annular potentials.