We present a novel method for generating potential landscapes in GaAs microcavities through focused He+ implantation. The ion beam imprints micron-scale patterns of non-radiative centers that deplete the exciton reservoir and form a loss-defined potential minimum. Under non-resonant pumping, the resulting traps have a lateral size ≤1.2μm and a three-dimensional mode volume of only ≈0.6μm3, small enough to to support a single polariton condensate mode. The implantation process maintains strong coupling and provides lithographic (<300nm) resolution. These loss-engineered traps effectively overcome the micrometer-scale limitations of conventional microcavity patterning techniques, opening new avenues for device development and polariton research within the quantum regime.
@article{arxiv.2506.22202,
title = {Ultra-small Mode Volume Polariton Condensation via Precision $He^+$ Ion Implantation},
author = {Y. C. Balas and X. Zhou and E. Cherotchenko and I. Kuznetsov and S. K. Rajendran and G. G. Paschos and A. V. Trifonov and A. Nalitov and H. Ohadi and P. G. Savvidis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.22202},
year = {2025}
}