Polaritons are composite quasiparticles product of the coupling bewteen excitons (electron-hole excitations in a semiconductor) and photons. In microcavities, they constitute an ideal environment to study the physics of quantum matter waves in the driven-dissipative regime. In the present talk, I will go through the basics of polariton systems. In particular, I will focus on the effect of the TE-TM splitting in a semiconductor microcavity on the dynamics of the polariton condensate, due to spin-orbit coupling. This kind of coupling can lead to persistent current nucleation in ring geometries. We will discuss the role of the disorder and the interactions in this system, and exploit it in order to proof the superfluidity of polariton condensates.

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Please note the unusual location