Solid-state continuous time crystal with a built-in clock
Abstract
Time crystals (TCs) are many-body systems displaying spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry. Here, we demonstrate a TC using driven-dissipative condensates of microcavity exciton-polaritons, spontaneously formed from an incoherent particle bath. In contrast to other realizations, the TC phases can be controlled by the power of continuous-wave non-resonant optical drive exciting the condensate and optomechanical interactions with phonons. Those phases are for increasing power: (i) Larmor precession of pseudo-spins - a signature of continuous TC, (ii) locking of the frequency of precession to self-sustained coherent phonons - stabilized TC, (iii) doubling of TC frequency by phonons - a discrete TC with continuous excitation. These results establish microcavity polaritons as a platform for the investigation of time-broken symmetry in non-hermitian systems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2401.06246,
title = {Solid-state continuous time crystal with a built-in clock},
author = {I. Carraro Haddad and D. L. Chafatinos and A. S. Kuznetsov and I. A. Papuccio-Fernández and A. A. Reynoso and A. E. Bruchhausen and K. Biermann and P. V. Santos and G. Usaj and A. Fainstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.06246},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
25 pages; 15 figures