ABSTRACT
Phase transitions, where observable properties of a many-body system change discontinuously, can occur in both open and closed systems. By placing cold atoms in optical cavities and inducing strong coupling between light and excitations of the atoms, one can experimentally study phase transitions of open quantum systems. Here we observe and study a non-equilibrium phase transition, the condensation of supermode-density-wave polaritons. These polaritons are formed from a superposition of cavity photon eigenmodes (a supermode), coupled to atomic density waves of a quantum gas. As the cavity supports multiple photon spatial modes and because the light-matter coupling can be comparable to the energy splitting of these modes, the composition of the supermode polariton is changed by the light-matter coupling on condensation. By demonstrating the ability to observe and understand density-wave-polariton condensation in the few-mode-degenerate cavity regime, our results show the potential to study similar questions in fully multimode cavities.
ABSTRACT
Digital micromirror devices (DMD) provide a robust platform with which to implement digital holography, in principle providing the means to rapidly generate propagating transverse electromagnetic fields with arbitrary mode profiles at visible and IR wavelengths. We use a DMD to probe a Fabry-Pérot cavity in single-mode and near-degenerate confocal configurations. Pumping arbitrary modes of the cavity is possible with excellent specificity by virtue of the spatial overlap between the incident light field and the cavity mode.
