Optical bistability under non-resonant excitation in spinor polariton condensates

Abstract: We realise bistability in the spinor of polariton condensates under non-resonant optical excitation and in the absence of biasing external fields. Numerical modelling of the system using the Ginzburg-Landau equation with an internal Josephson coupling between the two spin components of the condensate qualitatively describes the experimental observations. We demonstrate that polariton spin bistability persists for sweep times in the range of $[10 \mu sec,1 sec]$ offering a promising route to spin switches and spin memory elements.