Enigma of Polariton Simulators

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Abstract
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An array of several tens (perhaps hundreds or even thousands) polariton condensates excited by non-resonant optical pumping finds a phase-locked state on a time scale of <100 ps. According to the proposal of Berloff et al, [Nature Materials, 2017] this phase locked state can be mapped to the lowest energy eigen-state of a classical spin Hamiltonian, where the phase of each condensate sets the orientation of the corresponding spin. Still, several crucial issues are pending satisfactory answer: (1) how the operation time of the proposal polariton simulator scales with the number of condensates in the array? (2) how the fidelity of such a device would depend on the size of the system? (3) what is the range of external parameters (such as the pump power, average distance between the condensates in the array, size of the pump spots etc) where the device is expected to operate as it should? We present an analytical model of the polariton XY-simulator that answers these important questions.

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About the Speaker
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Prof. Alexey Kavokin is a leading researcher in light–matter coupling, solid-state physics, and exciton-polariton many-body phenomena. Since pioneering work in polaritonics beginning in 1992, he has made numerous seminal contributions, including the prediction of the Optical Spin Hall effect, room-temperature polariton Bose–Einstein condensation, the spin Meissner effect, Tamm plasmons, bosonic cascade lasing, and polariton qubits. He is the co-author of the pioneering textbooks Cavity Polaritons and Microcavities and has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles.