No dia 28 de maio, pelas 14h00, o Departamento de Física do ISEL promove no Auditório A o seminário "A Kinetic Approach to Photon Condensation in Semiconductor Platforms".
O evento terá como orador José Figueiredo (Instituto Superior Técnico - Universidade de Lisboa).
Abstract:
While dye-filled microcavities achieved photon condensation for the first time [1], semiconductor heterostructures [2, 3] have emerged as a definitive platform for exploring the nonequilibrium dynamics of photon BECs.
In these set-ups, quantum wells provide an active medium that enables full-electrical pumping, precise spectral engineering, and enhanced effective photon–photon interactions compared to dye molecules. This transition from molecular gases to solid-state devices elevates photon BEC from a tabletop-model system to an integrable technological component, while demanding a quantitative description of nonequilibrium relaxation in open settings.
In this talk, we present a quantum-kinetic framework that accounts for the interacting dynamics of the different excitations in driven-dissipative semiconductor microcavities [4].
In contrast to dye-based experiments, the semiconductor medium cannot be treated as an externally fixed thermal bath, and instead it must be modeled as a dynamical quantum-degenerate subsystem that exchanges energy not only with the photon field but also internally through Coulomb scattering and with the underlying lattice.
Numerical solutions reveal quantitative agreement with measured experimental trends, while also clarifying the nature of the different phase transitions. These results provide a predictive route to optimize the operation of future photon-BEC-based devices.
[1] Klaers, J., Schmitt, J., Vewinger, F. et al., Nature 468, 545-548 (2010).
[2] Schofield, R.C., Fu, M., Clarke, E. et al., Nat. Photon. 18, 1083-1089 (2024).
[3] Pieczarka, M., Gebski, M., Piasecka, A.N. et al., Nat. Photon. 18, 1090-1096 (2024).
[4] Figueiredo, J. L., Schofield, R. C., Fu, M. et al., Rep. Prog. Phys. 89, 057901 (2026).
