Anderson localisation in steady states of microcavity polaritons

We present an experimental signature of the Anderson localisation of microcavity polaritons, and provide a systematic study of the dependence on disorder strength. We reveal a controllable degree of localisation, as characterised by the inverse-participation ratio, by tuning the positional disorder of arrays of interacting mesas. This constitutes the realisation of disorder-induced localisation in a driven-dissipative system. In addition to being an ideal candidate for investigating localisation in this regime, microcavity polaritons hold promise for low-power, ultra-small devices and their localisation could be used as a resource in quantum memory and quantum information processing.

Quantum Polaritonic

Microcavity polaritons have demonstrated their unique propensity to host macroscopic quantum phenomena. While they appear to be highly promising for applications in a classical realm, they are still far from competing even with decade old electronics. Another playground where polaritons could emerge as strong contenders is the microscopic quantum regime with single-particle effects and nonlinearities at the one-polariton level. Several theoretical proposals exist to explore polariton blockade mechanisms, realize sophisticated quantum phase transitions, implement quantum simulations and/or quantum information processing, thereby opening a new page of the polariton physics when such ideas will be implemented in the laboratory.