Microcavity (IMAGE)

Polytechnique Montréal

Microcavity

Caption

To produce the room-temperature condensate, the team of researchers from Polytechnique and Imperial College first created a device that makes it possible for polaritons - hybrid quasi-particles that are part light and part matter - to exist. The device is composed of a film of organic molecules 100 nanometres thick, confined between two nearly perfect mirrors. The condensate is created by first exciting a sufficient number of polaritons using a laser and then observed via the blue light it emits. Its dimensions can be comparable to that of a human hair, a gigantic size on the quantum scale.

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Konstantinos Daskalakis, Imperial College London

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