Can we move photons?

Abstract

The drag effects in the system of spatially separated electrons and excitons in coupled quantum wells (CQWs) embedded in an optical microcavity are predicted. It is shown that at low temperature an electron current induces the polariton flow, therefore, a transport of photons along the cavity. However, the superfluid polariton component does not contribute to the electron drag. The polariton-electron at the low temperatures and exciton-electron at the high temperatures drag coefficients are presented. It is shown that the drag coefficients increase when temperature increases. We discuss possible experiments for the observation of the electron-polariton drag effect.