Two-photon pumped exciton-polariton condensation

Abstract: Two-photon absorption (TPA) allows accessing dark states of matter otherwise inaccessible to light, which serve as important building blocks for quantum information processing. In a semiconductor microcavity, TPA driven condensation of strongly-coupled light-matter exciton-polaritons can enable new solid-state quantum simulations of dark state-condensate interactions, and was predicted to stimulate THz emission. Here, we report the first observation of two-photon pumped polariton condensation, demonstrated by angle-resolved photoluminescence in a GaAs-based microcavity. TPA is evidenced in the quadratic emission dependence on pump power below and above the condensation threshold, and second-harmonic generation is ruled out by both this threshold behaviour and by the emission peak energy showing no dependence on pump photon energy. Our results pave the way towards novel polariton-based sources and solid-state coherent control of collective quantum states with individual two-level systems.