Mainz 2026 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 18: Photon BEC

Q 18.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 12:00–12:15, P 4

Two-Dimensional Photon Gases in a Silver-Mirror Based Optical Dye-Microcavity — •Niels Wolf, Leon Kleebank, Andreas Redmann, Frank Vewinger, and Martin Weitz — University of Bonn

While the thermalization of radiation through contact with matter is a well-established concept, it has been shown only relatively recently that, when applying this concept to low-dimensional photon gases, optical quantum gases with a tunable chemical potential can be realized, allowing for the formation of Bose-Einstein condensates of photons [1]. Thermalization is in this system reached by repeated absorption and emission processes on dye molecules, which act as a thermal reservoir for the photon gas. In principle one can expect that this photon gas thermalization mechanism should allow for a phase-space build-up of light, although microcavity systems based on dielectric mirrors have not shown this effect, as understood from the large angle-dependence of the dielectric mirror reflectivities, which result in photon loss [2]. We have set up a dye-filled microcavity apparatus based on metallic mirrors, which offer a much wider angular acceptance range than dielectric mirrors. The aim of this ongoing experiment is the observation of phase-space build-up of light. The current status of the experimental results, which include observations of the microcavity emission spectra of a two-dimensional photon gas in the metallic mirror setup, will be reported.

[1] J. Klaers, J. Schmitt, F. Vewinger, and M. Weitz, Nature 468, 545-548 (2010) [2] E. Busley et al., Phys. Rev. A 107, 052204 (2023)

Keywords: Two-Dimensional Photon Gases; Phase-Space Build-Up of Light; Thermalization of Photons; Photon BEC; Metallic-Dye-Microcavity