Objective
Despite their incredibly short lifetime, around a few picoseconds only, it has now been amply demonstrated that polaritons may undergo Bose Einstein condensation (BEC) and such quantum fluids have demonstrated very interesting properties such as superfluidity. This project aims at introducing a new paradigm in solid-state physics trough the manipulation of polaritons quantum fluids and condensates in properly designed traps : such fluids will bring a wide variety of novel properties. With my team, I have recently made major advances towards this by preparing high quality polariton traps and evidencing some of the aspects of the rich physics of polaritons fluids in traps.
The whole field of polariton fluids is still in its infancy and I am convinced that major discoveries will be made during the coming years both for propagating polariton fluids and for confined geometries. I intend to stay at the forefront the field of confined polaritons and to provide high quality structures to other labs. My studies will be oriented along three major lines, each requesting a significant effort.
- The study of polariton BECs and quantum fluids in planar microcavities, both in II-VIs and III-Vs,
- The manipulation of coherent polariton fluids in geometry controlled environments,
- The realization of BEC and quantum fluid based polaritronic devices.
Each of these three parts represents a major challenge with great potentialities. First, these topics are a really novel contribution in solid-state physics. Second, the possible manipulation of polariton condensates opens up a vast domain, which covers both fundamental and applied physics and which limits we are absolutely unable to assess yet. I feel that the transition from atom condensates to polariton condensates may bring similar improvements for possible devices than it has been the case for the transition between the electronic tube and the transistor. I aim to keep my research group at the head of these very promising changes.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
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Funding Scheme
ERC-AG - ERC Advanced GrantHost institution
1015 Lausanne
Switzerland