Dynamical Casimir emission from polariton condensates

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Jan 24;112(3):036406. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.036406. Epub 2014 Jan 24.

Abstract

We study theoretically the dynamical Casimir effect in an exciton-polariton condensate that is suddenly created by an ultrashort laser pulse at normal incidence. As a consequence of the abrupt change of the quantum vacuum, Bogoliubov excitations are generated. The subsequent evolution, governed by polariton interactions and losses, is studied within a linearized truncated Wigner approximation. We focus in particular on the momentum distribution and spatial coherence. The limiting behavior at large and small momenta is determined analytically. A simple scaling relation for the final condensate depletion as a function of the system parameters is found and the correlation length is shown to depend linearly on the condensate depletion.