Soliton instabilities in a polariton quantum fluid.
© 2012 EPFL
Soliton instabilities and vortex street formation in a polariton quantum fluid.
Quantum fluids can pass an obstacle without any perturbation, for low enough speed. When the speed is increased, turbulence is observed similarly to classical fluids, except that it has a quantized character. Waves become solitons that show a precise phase shift by π, vortices become quantized vortices with a 2π shift around the core, vortex streets become quantized. The group of Benoît Deveaud-Plédran (LOEQ - Laboratory of Quantum Optoelectronics) has studied such quantum fluid properties with polariton fluids.