Macroscopically ordered state in an exciton system

There is a rich variety of quantum liquids—such as superconductors, liquid helium and atom Bose–Einstein condensates—that exhibit macroscopic coherence in the form of ordered arrays of vortices1,2,3,4. Experimental observation of a macroscopically ordered electronic state in semiconductors has, however, remained a challenging and relatively unexplored problem. A promising approach for the realization of such a state is to use excitons, bound pairs of electrons and holes that can form in semiconductor systems. At low densities, excitons are Bose-particles5, and at low temperatures, of the order of a few kelvin, excitons can form a quantum liquid—that is, a statistically degenerate Bose gas or even a Bose–Einstein condensate5,6,7. Here we report photoluminescence measurements of a quasi-two-dimensional exciton gas in GaAs/AlGaAs coupled quantum wells and the observation of a macroscopically ordered exciton state. Our spatially resolved measurements reveal fragmentation of the ring-shaped emission pattern into circular structures that form periodic arrays over lengths up to 1 mm.