Dario Ballarini - CNR-NANOTEC

Dynamical universality in a driven quantum fluid of light

Universal scaling near phase transitions is one of the central ideas of physics, linking the growth of spatial correlations to the slowing down of dynamics. So far, direct experimental access to this critical behavior has remained largely confined to equilibrium many-body systems, and especially to static critical behavior. Here we probe how universality emerges in a driven quantum fluid of light formed by exciton–polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity. By probing the fluctuation-dominated disordered phase below the condensation threshold, we directly measure both the static growth of the correlation length ξ and the dynamical slowing down of the relaxation time τ. 

We find that these quantities obey the universal relation τ∝ξ^2  where z≈2 is the dynamical exponent revealing diffusive dynamics of a non-conserved order parameter. Our results extend the physics of critical dynamics from equilibrium matter to driven optical systems, bridging quantum condensates and lasers.