Self-bound droplets of light with orbital angular momentum

Niclas Westerberg; Kali E. Wilson; Callum W. Duncan; Daniele Faccio; Ewan M. Wright; Patrik Öhberg; Manuel Valiente

doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.98.053835

Self-bound droplets of light with orbital angular momentum

Niclas Westerberg^*, Kali E. Wilson, Callum W. Duncan, Daniele Faccio, Ewan M. Wright, Patrik Öhberg, Manuel Valiente

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Systems with competing attractive and repulsive interactions have a tendency to condense into droplets. This is the case for water in a sink, liquid helium, and dipolar atomic gases. Here we consider a photon fluid which is formed in the transverse plane of a monochromatic laser beam propagating in an attractive (focusing) nonlocal nonlinear medium. In this setting we demonstrate the formation of the optical analog of matter-wave droplets and study their properties. The system we consider admits droplets that carry orbital angular momentum. We find bound states possessing liquidlike properties, such as bulk pressure and compressibility. Interestingly, these droplets of light, as opposed to optical vortices, form due to the competition between long-range s-wave (monopole) and d-wave (quadrupole) interactions as well as diffraction.

Original language	English
Article number	053835
Number of pages	10
Journal	Physical Review A
Volume	98
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.98.053835
Publication status	Published - 21 Nov 2018

Funding

N.W. and C.W.D. acknowledges support from EPSRC CM-CDT Grant No. EP/L015110/1. P.A. and M.V. acknowledge support from EPSRC Grant No. EP/M024636/1. D.F. acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme Grant No.ERC GA 306559 and EPSRC (UK) Grant No. EP/P006078/2. The authors would like to acknowledge insightful discussions with Calum Maitland, Magnus Borgh, and Luis Santos. N.W. and C.W.D. acknowledges support from EPSRC CM-CDT Grant No. EP/L015110/1. P.Ö. and M.V. acknowledge support from EPSRC Grant No. EP/M024636/1. D.F. acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme Grant No.ERC GA 306559 and EPSRC (UK) Grant No. EP/P006078/2.

Keywords

angular momentum of light
nonlinear optics
nonlinear dynamics
matter-wave droplets

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10.1103/PhysRevA.98.053835

Westerberg-etal-PRA-20180-Self-bound-droplets-of-lightFinal published version, 1.33 MBLicence: Strath_1

Cite this

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AU - Westerberg, Niclas

AU - Wilson, Kali E.

AU - Duncan, Callum W.

AU - Faccio, Daniele

AU - Wright, Ewan M.

AU - Öhberg, Patrik

AU - Valiente, Manuel

PY - 2018/11/21

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N2 - Systems with competing attractive and repulsive interactions have a tendency to condense into droplets. This is the case for water in a sink, liquid helium, and dipolar atomic gases. Here we consider a photon fluid which is formed in the transverse plane of a monochromatic laser beam propagating in an attractive (focusing) nonlocal nonlinear medium. In this setting we demonstrate the formation of the optical analog of matter-wave droplets and study their properties. The system we consider admits droplets that carry orbital angular momentum. We find bound states possessing liquidlike properties, such as bulk pressure and compressibility. Interestingly, these droplets of light, as opposed to optical vortices, form due to the competition between long-range s-wave (monopole) and d-wave (quadrupole) interactions as well as diffraction.

AB - Systems with competing attractive and repulsive interactions have a tendency to condense into droplets. This is the case for water in a sink, liquid helium, and dipolar atomic gases. Here we consider a photon fluid which is formed in the transverse plane of a monochromatic laser beam propagating in an attractive (focusing) nonlocal nonlinear medium. In this setting we demonstrate the formation of the optical analog of matter-wave droplets and study their properties. The system we consider admits droplets that carry orbital angular momentum. We find bound states possessing liquidlike properties, such as bulk pressure and compressibility. Interestingly, these droplets of light, as opposed to optical vortices, form due to the competition between long-range s-wave (monopole) and d-wave (quadrupole) interactions as well as diffraction.

KW - angular momentum of light

KW - nonlinear optics

KW - nonlinear dynamics

KW - matter-wave droplets

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JO - Physical Review A

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Self-bound droplets of light with orbital angular momentum

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