Photon-number-resolved measurement of an exciton-polariton condensate

Abstract

We measure the full photon-number distribution emitted from a Bose condensate of microcavity exciton polaritons confined in a micropillar cavity. The statistics are acquired by means of a photon-number-resolving transition edge sensor. We directly observe that the photon-number distribution evolves with the nonresonant optical excitation power from geometric to quasi-Poissonian statistics, which is canonical for a transition from a thermal to a coherent state. Moreover, the photon-number distribution allows one to evaluate the higher-order photon correlations, shedding further light on the coherence formation and phase transition of the polariton condensate. The experimental data are analyzed in terms of thermal-coherent states, which gives direct access to the thermal and coherent fraction from the measured distributions. These results pave the way for a full understanding of the contribution of interactions in light-matter condensates in the coherence buildup at threshold.