Center for Excitonics

Events

Microcavity Polaritonics: Optically-Steering Interacting Quantum Liquids on a Chip

October 17, 2013 at 3pm/36-428

Jeremy Baumberg
Department of Physics NanoPhotonics Centre, University of Cambridge, UK

Abstract:
Constructing ultra-high finesse semiconductor microcavities produces quasiparticles called exciton polaritons which can Bose condense even up to room temperature. The resulting macroscopic quantum states are directly visible and allow superflows to be imaged. Spontaneous oscillations, self-organised vortex lattices, and geometrical phase transitions are all part of the rich phenomena observed.

Recent references:

[1] Nature Physics 8, 190 (2012); G. Tosi et al., “Sculpting oscillators with light within a nonlinear quantum fluid”

[2] Nature Communications 3, 1243 (2012); G. Tosi et. al., “Geometrically locked vortex lattices in semiconductor quantum fluids”

[3] Science 336, 704 (2012); P. Cristofolini et al., “Coupling Quantum Tunneling with Cavity Photons”

[4] Phys.Rev.Lett. (2013); P. Cristofolini et al., “Optical superfluid phase transitions and trapping of polariton condensates”

Bio:
Prof. Jeremy J. Baumberg FRS, directs a UK Nano-Photonics Centre at the University of Cambridge and has extensive experience in developing optical materials structured on the nano-scale that can be assembled in large volume. He is also Director of the Cambridge Nano Doctoral Training Centre, a key UK site for training PhD students in interdisciplinary Nano research. Strong experience with Hitachi, IBM, his own spin-offs Mesophotonics and Base4, as well as strong industrial engagement give him a unique position to combine academic insight with industry application in a two-way flow. With over 10000 citations, he is a leading innovator in Nano. This has led to awards of the IoP Young Medal (2013), Royal Society Mullard Prize (2005), the IoP Charles Vernon Boys Medal (2000) and the IoP Mott Lectureship (2005). He frequently talks on NanoScience to the media, and is a strategic advisor on NanoTechnology to the UK Research Councils. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Optical Society of America, the Institute of Physics, and the Institute of NanoTechnology.
[see np.phy.cam.ac.uk]