Controlled Switching of Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Mixture of Two Species of Polaritons

Abstract

We report temperature-dependent switching between lower and upper polariton condensation in a GaAs/AlGaAs microcavity when both of these species have comparable populations in a mixture. Using angle-resolved photoluminescence, we observe that at low temperatures, condensation occurs in the lower polariton branch, while at elevated temperatures, the upper polariton branch can become favored. At an intermediate temperature, we observe instability in the condensate formation, characterized by metastable correlations of the fluctuations in intensity and linewidth of the lower and upper polariton branches.