Crescent states in charge-imbalanced polariton condensates

Abstract

We study two-dimensional charge-imbalanced electron-hole systems embedded in an optical microcavity. We find that strong coupling to photons favors states with pairing at zero or small center of mass momentum, leading to a condensed state with spontaneously broken time-reversal and rotational symmetry, and unpaired carriers that occupy an anisotropic crescent-shaped sliver of momentum space. The crescent state is favoured at moderate charge imbalance, while a Fulde–Ferrel–Larkin–Ovchinnikov-like state — with pairing at large center of mass momentum — occurs instead at strong imbalance. The crescent state stability results from long-range Coulomb interactions in combination with extremely long-range photon-mediated interactions.