Theory of two-component superfluidity of microcavity polaritons
We develop a microscopic mean-field theory describing the coexistence of Bose-Einstein condensates of upper and lower polaritons (UP/LP) in a semiconductor microcavity. Incorporating interbranch scattering within a modified polariton Hamiltonian, we introduce a phenomenological population-split parameter α that quantifies the relative LP/UP occupations. At zero detuning, the critical temperature becomes independent of α, converging to a single value that marks the balanced, resonant regime. Away from resonance, variations in α lead to distinctive and experimentally resolvable changes in both the sound velocity cs and critical temperature Tc, relative to the singlecomponent (LP-only) condensate limit. The system under study consists of excitons confined in a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayer, particularly WSe2 embedded within a planar optical microcavity of GaAs where they strongly couple to cavity photons. Our analysis focuses on monolayer WSe2 embedded in a GaAs microcavity. We present results for GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells embedded in a GaAs microcavity in the Appendix. While mean-field in scope, the framework provides analytic benchmarks and physical insight for future treatments that include dissipation and fluctuations in nonequilibrium polariton superfluids.
Authors
- Oleg L. Berman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2081-6907)
- P. B. Littlewood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0282-9325)
- Godfrey Gumbs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0252-6826)
- A. Nafis Arafat
Institutions
- The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- Hunter College (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- New York City College of Technology (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
- Published
- 2026-05-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648x/ae6c80
- Primary Topic
- Strong Light-Matter Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Professional Staff Congress and City University of New York