Kibble-Zurek mechanism in polariton graphene

Abstract

We study the formation of topological defects (quantum vortices) during the formation of a 2D polariton condensate at the $\Gamma$ point of a honeycomb lattice via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. The lattice modifies the single-particle dispersion. The typical interaction energies at the quench time correspond to the linear part of the dispersion. The resulting scaling exponent for the density of topological defects is numerically found as $0.95\pm 0.05$. This value differs from the one expected for 2D massive particles (1/2), but is indeed compatible with the one expected for a linear dispersion. We moreover demonstrate that the vortices can be pinned to the lattice, which prevents their recombination and could facilitate their observation and counting in continuous wave experiments.

References in corpus (8)

• Topological Photonics
• Quantised Vortices in an Exciton-Polariton Fluid
• Observation of Vortex Pinning in Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Engineering spin-orbit coupling for photons and polaritons in microstructures
• Realization of inverse Kibble-Zurek scenario with trapped Bose gases
• Dynamical vortex phases in a Bose-Einstein condensate driven by a rotating optical lattice
• Photonic Versus Electronic Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect
• Phase ordering kinetics of a nonequilibrium exciton-polariton condensate

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Domain-wall topology induced by spontaneous symmetry breaking in polariton graphene
• Topological Unwinding in an Exciton-Polariton Condensate Array