{
  "id": "0807.3484",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2008-07-22T13:57:16.000Z",
  "updated": "2008-07-22T13:57:16.000Z",
  "title": "Bose-Einstein condensation of stationary-light polaritons",
  "authors": [
    "Michael Fleischhauer",
    "Johannes Otterbach",
    "Razmik G. Unanyan"
  ],
  "comment": "4 pages, 3 figures",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.163601",
  "categories": [
    "quant-ph",
    "cond-mat.other"
  ],
  "abstract": "We propose and analyze a mechanism for Bose-Einstein condensation of stationary dark-state polaritons. Dark-state polaritons (DSPs) are formed in the interaction of light with laser-driven 3-level Lambda-type atoms and are the basis of phenomena such as electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), ultra-slow and stored light. They have long intrinsic lifetimes and in a stationary set-up with two counterpropagating control fields of equal intensity have a 3D quadratic dispersion profile with variable effective mass. Since DSPs are bosons they can undergo a Bose-Einstein condensation at a critical temperature which can be many orders of magnitude larger than that of atoms. We show that thermalization of polaritons can occur via elastic collisions mediated by a resonantly enhanced optical Kerr nonlinearity on a time scale short compared to the decay time. Finally condensation can be observed by turning stationary into propagating polaritons and monitoring the emitted light.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2008-07-22T13:57:16.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "subjects": [
      "42.50.Gy",
      "03.75.Hh",
      "71.35.Lk"
    ],
    "keywords": [
      "bose-einstein condensation",
      "stationary-light polaritons",
      "enhanced optical kerr nonlinearity",
      "3d quadratic dispersion",
      "time scale short"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Physical Review Letters",
      "year": 2008,
      "month": "Oct",
      "volume": 101,
      "number": 16,
      "pages": 163601
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 4,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2008PhRvL.101p3601F"
    }
  }
}