Room Temperature Exciton-Polariton Condensation in Silicon Metasurfaces Emerging from Bound States in the Continuum

Abstract

We show the first experimental demonstration of room-temperature exciton-polariton (EP) condensation from a bound state in the continuum (BIC). This demonstration is achieved by strongly coupling stable excitons in an organic perylene dye with the extremely long-lived BIC in a dielectric metasurface of silicon nanoparticles. The long lifetime of the BIC, mainly due to the suppression of radiation leakage, allows for EP thermalization to the ground state before decaying. This property results in a condensation threshold of less than 5 μJ cm-2, 1 order of magnitude lower than the lasing threshold reported in similar systems in the weak coupling limit.