TY  - JOUR
A1  - Estrecho, E.
A1  - Gao, T.
A1  - Brodbeck, S.
A1  - Kamp, M.
A1  - Schneider, C.
A1  - Höfling, S.
A1  - Truscott, A. G.
A1  - Ostrovskaya, E. A.
T1  - Visualising Berry phase and diabolical points in a quantum exciton-polariton billiard
JF  - Scientific Reports
N2  - Diabolical points (spectral degeneracies) can naturally occur in spectra of two-dimensional quantum systems and classical wave resonators due to simple symmetries. Geometric Berry phase is associated with these spectral degeneracies. Here, we demonstrate a diabolical point and the corresponding Berry phase in the spectrum of hybrid light-matter quasiparticles—exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities. It is well known that sufficiently strong optical pumping can drive exciton-polaritons to quantum degeneracy, whereby they form a macroscopically populated quantum coherent state similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate. By pumping a microcavity with a spatially structured light beam, we create a two-dimensional quantum billiard for the exciton-polariton condensate and demonstrate a diabolical point in the spectrum of the billiard eigenstates. The fully reconfigurable geometry of the potential walls controlled by the optical pump enables a striking experimental visualization of the Berry phase associated with the diabolical point. The Berry phase is observed and measured by direct imaging of the macroscopic exciton-polariton probability densities.
KW  - Berry phase
KW  - diabolical points
KW  - quantum billiard
KW  - exciton-polariton
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-167496
VL  - 6
IS  - 37653
ER  -