1. Comment on 'Linear wave dynamics explains observations attributed to dark-solitons in a polariton quantum fluid'
- Author
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Iacopo Carusotto, Dmitry Solnyshkov, Gabriele Grosso, Elisabeth Giacobino, Simon Pigeon, Alberto Bramati, Alberto Amo, Guillaume Malpuech, Jacqueline Bloch, Daniele Sanvitto, Cristiano Ciuti, Nicolas Pavloff, A. M. Kamchatnov, Benoit Deveaud, Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures (LPN), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB (Jussieu)), Fédération de recherche du Département de physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure - ENS Paris (FRDPENS), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), INO-CNR BEC Center and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Trento (UNITN), Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques (MPQ (UMR_7162)), Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Institute of Spectroscopy, Russian Academy of Sciences [Moscow] (RAS), Institut Pascal (IP), Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand 2 (UBP)-SIGMA Clermont (SIGMA Clermont)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques (LPTMS), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Queen's University [Belfast] (QUB), Istituto Nanoscienze [Lecce] (NNL), National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Fédération de recherche du Département de physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure - ENS Paris (FRDPENS), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand 2 (UBP)-Sigma CLERMONT (Sigma CLERMONT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Istituto Nanoscienze [Lecce (NNL)
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Physics ,Quantum fluid ,[PHYS]Physics [physics] ,Scattering ,Nucleation ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Critical ionization velocity ,Nonlinear system ,Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas) ,Quantum mechanics ,Polariton ,Soliton ,Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases ,Excitation ,Optics (physics.optics) ,Physics - Optics - Abstract
In a recent preprint (arXiv:1401.1128v1) Cilibrizzi and co-workers report experiments and simulations showing the scattering of polaritons against a localised obstacle in a semiconductor microcavity. The authors observe in the linear excitation regime the formation of density and phase patterns reminiscent of those expected in the non-linear regime from the nucleation of dark solitons. Based on this observation, they conclude that previous theoretical and experimental reports on dark solitons in a polariton system should be revised. Here we comment why the results from Cilibrizzi et al. take place in a very different regime than previous investigations on dark soliton nucleation and do not reproduce all the signatures of its rich nonlinear phenomenology. First of all, Cilibrizzi et al. consider a particular type of radial excitation that strongly determines the observed patterns, while in previous reports the excitation has a plane-wave profile. Most importantly, the nonlinear relation between phase jump, soliton width and fluid velocity, and the existence of a critical velocity with the time-dependent formation of vortex-antivortex pairs are absent in the linear regime. In previous reports about dark soliton and half-dark soliton nucleation in a polariton fluid, the distinctive dark soliton physics is supported both by theory (analytical and numerical) and experiments (both continuous wave and pulsed excitation)., 4 pages, 2 figures
- Published
- 2015