Statistical physics of Bose-Einstein-condensed light in a dye microcavity.
We theoretically analyze the temperature behavior of paraxial light in thermal equilibrium with a dye-filled optical microcavity. At low temperatures the photon gas undergoes Bose-Einstein condensation, and the photon number in the cavity ground state becomes macroscopic with respect to the total photon number. Owing to a grand-canonical excitation exchange between the photon gas and the dye molecule reservoir, a regime with unusually large fluctuations of the condensate number is predicted for this system that is not observed in present atomic physics Bose-Einstein condensation experiments.
Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany.
Jan
J
Klaers
Julian
J
Schmitt
Tobias
T
Damm
Frank
F
Vewinger
Martin
M
Weitz