Coupled system of electrons and exciton-polaritons: Screening, dynamical effects, and superconductivity

Abstract

Bose-Fermi systems such as mixtures of electrons with excitons or exciton-polaritons are extensively discussed as candidates to host a variety of intriguing phenomena, including polaron formation, drag effects, supersolidity, and superconductivity. In this paper, assuming the strong-coupling regime between the semiconductor excitons and cavity photons, we develop the many-body theory approach addressing the interplay of different types of interaction among various species in such a mixture, wherein we take into account dynamical density responses of both the Bose-condensed exciton-polaritons and the two-dimensional electron gas inside an optical microcavity. As anticipated previously, at high enough polariton densities, the lower hybrid mode of the system's excitation spectrum acquires a roton minimum, making the system prone to superconducting pairing in the vicinity of the roton instability. We analyze the possibility of polariton-BEC-mediated superconductivity in the electron gas, taking into account full momentum and frequency dependence of the gap, as well as in the Eliashberg approach where the momentum dependence is neglected, and in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer approach that discards the frequency dependence and dynamical effects. Considering the interaction screening in Thomas-Fermi and random-phase approximations, we estimate the critical temperatures of superconductivity to be not larger than 0.1 K in the vicinity of instability. As possible realizations of the coupled polariton-electron system, semiconductor quantum wells and two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides are considered.

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