2012, Cerda-Méndez, E.A., Krizhanovskii, D.N., Biermann, K., Hey, R., Skolnick, M.S., Santos, P.V.

We study the spatial coherence of polariton condensates subjected to coherent modulation by a one-dimensional tunable acoustic potential.We use an interferometric technique to measure the amplitude and phase of the macroscopic condensate wavefunction. By increasing the acoustic modulation amplitude, we track the transition from the extended wavefunction of the unperturbed condensate to a regime where the wavefunction is spatially modulated and then to a fully confined regime, where independent condensates form at the minima of the potential with negligible particle tunneling between adjacent sites.

2015, Chana, J.K., Sich, M., Fras, F., Gorbach, A. V., Skryabin, D. V., Cancellieri, E., Cerda-Méndez, E. A., Biermann, K., Hey, R., Santos, P. V., Skolnick, M.S., Krizhanovskii, D.N.

We report propagating bound microcavity polariton soliton arrays consisting of multipeak structures either along (x) or perpendicular (y) to the direction of propagation. Soliton arrays of up to five solitons are observed, with the number of solitons controlled by the size and power of the triggering laser pulse. The breakup along the x direction occurs when the effective area of the trigger pulse exceeds the characteristic soliton size determined by polariton-polariton interactions. Narrowing of soliton emission in energymomentum space indicates phase locking between adjacent solitons, consistent with numerical modeling which predicts stable multihump soliton solutions. In the y direction, the breakup originates from inhomogeneity across the wave front in the transverse direction which develops into a stable array only in the solitonic regime via phase-dependent interactions of propagating fronts.