Final Report Summary - CLERMONT4 (Exciton-polaritons in microcavities: physics and devices)
The Initial training network CLERMONT4 continued the series of Research-training networks in Polaritonics, started in 1999 by the project "CLERMONT" and continued in 2003 with "CLERMONT2". These projects aimed at developing a new generation of opto-electronic devices based on Bose-Einstein condensation and coherent spin properties of light-matter quaiparticles: exciton-polaritons. In simple words, the project studied the physics of liquid light in semiconductor crystals.Several outstanding results of major importance have been reported by the members of the consortium CLERMONT4. In particular, remarkable progress has been achieved in the experimental realisation of light emitting polariton diodes, spin switches and optical parametric oscillators. Good progress has also been made towards the producing electrically pumped polariton lasers, while the colleagues from Wurzburg and Michigan were the first to report on experimental realization of these devices (publications in Nature and Physical Review Letters, 2013). The network has organised 12 events, including the kick-off meeting, the international conferences on Optics of Excitons in Confined Systems in Madrid and Paris, the Nanophotonics Schools in Maratea and Tsakhadzor, the international conferences on the Physics of Light-Matter coupling in Cuernavaca and Herssonisos, the joint CLERMONT4-Spinoptronics meetings in Crete and Madrid, the Nanophotonics and Photovoltaics School in Maratea (September 2011, August 2013), the joint meeting of CLERMONT4 and INDEX projects in Cambridge (August 2013). These meetings emphasized the global scale and unprecedented importance of CLERMONT projects: over 50 PhD students have been trained in Europe in 2000-2013, many of them giving considerable contributions to the development of Polaritonics and some of them occupying Professor positions already. Further information on the project achievements, Members of the consortium and group pictures are available at the project web-site http://www.optolab.uniroma2.it/clermont4/index.php/Main_Page