Condensates of Light

659. WE-Heraeus-Seminar

15 Jan - 17 Jan 2018

Where:

Physikzentrum Bad Honnef

Scientific organizers:

Prof. M. Weitz, U Bonn • Dr. J. Keeling, U St. Andrews/UK • Dr. R. Nyman, Imperial College London/UK

The seminar is a follow-up on the successful 2016 workshop on "Condensates of Light" in Chicheley Hall

Bose-Einstein condensation, the macroscopic ground state occupation of a system of integer spin particles (bosons), has been observed in the last twenty years for dilute cold atomic gases and in solid state systems with both exciton-polaritons and magnons. More recently, Bose-Einstein condensation of photons has been demonstrated in a dye-filled optical microcavity, where, unlike in a blackbody radiator, the photon number does not vanish at low temperature but instead exhibits condensation to the lowest energetic cavity mode. In other experiments, interesting other collective manybody effects of light have been observed in optical cavities, and both theorists and experimentalists are beginning to exploit novel quantum fluids of light.

The aim of the seminar is to illuminate the present status of Bose-Einstein condensates and other quantum fluids of light in different physical areas, ranging from atomic and molecular physics to solid state physics, including:

  • Bose-Einstein condensation of light in dye-filled microcavities
  • Condensates of semiconductor exciton-polaritons
  • Organic polariton condensation
  • Classical condensation phenomena in optics
  • Superfluid light