title: Pinning and depinning of the polarization of exciton-polariton condensates at room temperature.
abstract: A room temperature polariton condensate realized in a microcavity with embedded GaN quantum wells emits linearly polarized light at threshold with the plane of polarization pinned to one of the crystallographic axes. With increasing pumping power, a depinning of the polarization is observed resulting in a progressive decrease of the polarization degree of the emitted light. This depinning is understood in terms of polariton-polariton repulsion competing with the static disorder potential effect. The polarization behavior differs from that of conventional lasers where the polarization degree usually increases as a function of pumping power.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Levrat
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Butté
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Christian
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Glauser
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Feltin
authors.forename: J-F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Carlin
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Grandjean
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Read
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Kavokin
authors.forename: Y G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Rubo