Polariton Condensation in CdTe Microcavities: the phase diagram.

The first realisation of a polariton condensate has been very recently achieved in a CdTe microcavity [Kasprzak et al., Nature 443, 409 (2006)]. The direct comparisons with theoretical calculations reveal crucial information about the nature of the condensed phase for such composite light-matter particles. In particular, we compare the phase boundaries obtained experimentally, for different values of detuning and cryostat temperature, with those evaluated theoretically using a model which takes into account features of microcavity polaritons such as their reduced dimensionality, their internal composite structure, the disorder in the quantum wells, the polariton-polariton interaction, and their finite lifetime.