Condensation of Excitons in a Trap

Abstract

Condensation is observed in a gas of indirect excitons confined in an electrostatic trap. Imaging and interferometric measurements detect that excitons condense at the trap bottom and exciton spontaneous coherence emerges with lowering temperature. Below a temperature of about 1 K, the direct signature of Bose-Einstein condensation, the extension of coherence over the entire cloud, is observed.