We study the kinetics of polariton condensation accounting for the condensation process as well as the energy relaxation of condensed polaritons due to their scattering with phonons and excitons. By assuming a Boltzmann kinetic description of the scattering process, we show that intracondensate relaxation can be accounted for by an additional time-dependent term in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. As an example, we apply the formalism to the experimental results recently obtained in polariton microwires [E. Wertz, L. Ferrier, D. Solnyshkov, R. Johne, D. Sanvitto, A. Lemaître, I. Sagnes, R. Grousson, A. V. Kavokin, P. Senellart, G. Malpuech, and J. Bloch, Nat. Phys. 6, 860 (2010)]. In the presence of a local nonresonant optical pump, a dynamic balance between spatially dependent relaxation and particle loss develops and excites a series of modes, roughly equally spaced in energy. Upon comparison, excellent agreement is found with the experimental data.

• Received 31 August 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.245315