English

Interactions in dye-microcavity photon condensates and the prospects for their observation

Quantum Physics 2014-04-02 v2 Quantum Gases

Abstract

We derive the equation of motion for a Bose-Einstein condensate of photons in a dye-microcavity system, starting from Maxwell's equations. Our theory takes into account mirror shape, Kerr-type intensity-dependent refractive index and incoherent pumping and loss. The resulting equation is remarkably similar to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for exciton-polariton condensates, despite the different microscopic origins. We calculate the incoherent photoluminescence spectrum of the photon condensate which shows the Bogoliubov-type excitations around the mean-field at thermal equilibrium. Both open and closed-system models are presented to account for, respectively dissipation and inhomogeneities. Considering realistic parameters and experimental resolution, we estimate that by observing the angle-resolved spectrum of incoherent photoluminescence it is possible to resolve dimensionless interaction parameters of order 10510^{-5}, two orders of magnitude below current estimates. Thus we expect that this technique will lead to accurate measurements of the interactions in photon condensates.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1308.3588,
  title  = {Interactions in dye-microcavity photon condensates and the prospects for their observation},
  author = {R. A. Nyman and M. H. Szymanska},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.3588},
  year   = {2014}
}