Eur. Phys. J. B (2015) 88: 37
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2014-50838-0

Regular Article

Collective oscillations in spatially modulated exciton-polariton condensate arrays

¹ Theory of Oscillations Department, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, 603950, Russia
² Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
³ Department of Bioinformatics, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, 603950, Russia

^a e-mail: ivanchenko.mv@gmail.com

Received: 5 December 2014
Published online: 2 February 2015

Abstract

We study collective dynamics of interacting centers of exciton-polariton condensation in presence of spatial inhomogeneity, as modeled by diatomic active oscillator lattices. The mode formalism is developed and employed to derive existence and stability criteria of plane wave solutions. It is demonstrated that k₀ = 0 wave number mode with the binary elementary cell on a diatomic lattice possesses superior existence and stability properties. Decreasing net on-site losses (balance of dissipation and pumping) or conservative nonlinearity favors multistability of modes, while increasing frequency mismatch between adjacent oscillators detriments it. On the other hand, spatial inhomogeneity may recover stability of modes at high nonlinearities. Entering the region where all single-mode solutions are unstable we discover subsequent transitions between localized quasiperiodic, chaotic and global chaotic dynamics in the mode space, as nonlinearity increases. Importantly, the last transition evokes the loss of synchronization. These effects may determine lasing dynamics of interacting exciton-polariton condensation centers.