Solid-state continuous time crystal in a polariton condensate with a built-in mechanical clock

Abstract

Time crystals (TCs) are many-body systems that display spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry. We demonstrate a TC by using driven-dissipative condensates of microcavity exciton-polaritons, spontaneously formed from an incoherent particle bath. The TC phases are controlled by the power of a continuous-wave nonresonant optical drive exciting the condensate and the interaction with cavity phonons. Those phases are, for increasing power, Larmor-like precession of the condensate pseudo-spins—a signature of continuous TC; locking of the frequency of precession to self-sustained coherent phonons—stabilized TC; and doubling of TC’s period by phonons—a discrete TC with continuous excitation. These results establish microcavity polaritons as a platform for the investigation of time-broken symmetry in nonhermitian systems.