Photon fluids in a photorefractive crystal

International audienceDuring this talk, I will present our recent results on the experimental study of the frictional/superfluid transition in a flowing fluid of light in a cavityless configuration, at room temperature. Using a biased photorefractive nonlinear crystal, our approach is to study the light flow around photoinduced obstacles and probe the transition by varying both the light flow velocity and the strength of the interactions. By shaping the pump beam to increase the complexity of the 2D photoinduced potential, we aim at examining its influence on the superfluid behavior of light. Preliminary results in this direction will be presented