Spin Textures of Polariton Condensates in a Tunable Microcavity with Strong Spin-Orbit Interaction

S. Dufferwiel, F. Li, E. Cancellieri, L. Giriunas, A. A. P. Trichet, D. M. Whittaker, P. M. Walker, F. Fras, E. Clarke, J. M. Smith, M. S. Skolnick, D. N. Krizhanovskii

Published 2015-04-09Version 1

We report an extended family of spin textures in coexisting modes of zero-dimensional polariton condensates spatially confined in tunable open microcavity structures. The coupling between photon spin and angular momentum, which is enhanced in the open cavity structures, leads to new eigenstates of the polariton condensates carrying quantised spin vortices. Depending on the strength and anisotropy of the cavity confinement potential and the strength of the spin-orbit coupling, which can be tuned via the excitonic/photonic fractions, the condensate emissions exhibit either spin-vortex-like patterns or linear polarization, in good agreement with theoretical modelling.