We examine spatial localization and dynamical stability of Bose-Einstein condensates of exciton polaritons in microcavities under the condition of off-resonant spatially inhomogeneous optical pumping both with and without a harmonic trapping potential. We employ the open-dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii model for describing an incoherently pumped polariton condensate coupled to an exciton reservoir, and reveal that spatial localization of the steady-state condensate occurs due to the effective self-trapping created by the polariton flows supported by the spatially inhomogeneous pump, regardless of the presence of the external potential. A ground state of the polariton condensate with repulsive interactions between the quasiparticles represents a dynamically stable bright dissipative soliton. We also investigate the conditions for sustaining spatially localized structures with nonzero angular momentum in the form of single-charge vortices.

• Received 7 May 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.86.013636