Physical Review X (Nov 2020)

Dark-Soliton Molecules in an Exciton-Polariton Superfluid

  • Anne Maître,
  • Giovanni Lerario,
  • Adrià Medeiros,
  • Ferdinand Claude,
  • Quentin Glorieux,
  • Elisabeth Giacobino,
  • Simon Pigeon,
  • Alberto Bramati

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.041028
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 4
p. 041028

Abstract

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The general theory of dark solitons relies on repulsive interactions and, therefore, predicts the impossibility to form dark-soliton bound states. One important exception to this prediction is the observation of bound solitons in nonlocal nonlinear media. Here, we report that exciton-polariton superfluids can also sustain dark-soliton molecules, although the interactions are fully local. With a novel all-optical technique, we create two dark solitons that bind together to form an unconventional dark-soliton molecule. We demonstrate that the stability of this structure and the separation distance between two dark solitons is tightly connected to the driven-dissipative nature of the polariton fluid.