Thermalization and Cooling of Plasmon-Exciton Polaritons: Towards Quantum Condensation
Abstract
We present indications of thermalization and cooling of quasi-particles, a precursor for quantum condensation, in a plasmonic nanoparticle array. We investigate a periodic array of metallic nanorods covered by a polymer layer doped with an organic dye at room temperature. Surface lattice resonances of the array---hybridized plasmonic/photonic modes---couple strongly to excitons in the dye, and bosonic quasi-particles which we call plasmon-exciton-polaritons (PEPs) are formed. By increasing the PEP density through optical pumping, we observe thermalization and cooling of the strongly coupled PEP band in the light emission dispersion diagram. For increased pumping, we observe saturation of the strong coupling and emission in a new weakly coupled band, which again shows signatures of thermalization and cooling.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1210.7086,
title = {Thermalization and Cooling of Plasmon-Exciton Polaritons: Towards Quantum Condensation},
author = {S. R. K. Rodriguez and J. Feist and M. A. Verschuuren and F. J. Garcia Vidal and J. Gomez Rivas},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.7086},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
8 pages, 5 figures including supplemental material. The newest version includes new measurements and corrections to the interpretation of the results