We study formation of exciton polariton condensates in pot-like traps created by optical pumping in a planar microcavity with embedded quantum wells. The trap is formed by the repulsive reservoir of incoherent excitons excited by the ring-shaped non-resonant laser beam. Polariton condensates confined in a trapping potential are subject to spatial confinement leading to the energy quantization. We reveal experimentally the discrete spectrum of polariton eigenstates in an optical trap that can be characterised by a pair of quantum numbers: the azimuthal and the radial quantum numbers, that correspond to the number of nodes of the condensate wavefunction in the corresponding directions. The occupation numbers of the eignestates of a polariton condensate are determined by the overlap integral of the condensate wavefunction and the exciton reservoir spatial density distribution. The non-resonant pumping scheme enables engineering the shape and size of the trap, that allows to selectively excite specific superpositions of the eigen-states of a polariton condensate in each experiment. We demonstrate both single and multiple mode polariton lasing in an optical trap.
Original languageEnglish
Article number045302
Number of pages7
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume107
StatePublished - 11 Jan 2023

ID: 100543170