We predict that a photon condensate inside a dye-filled microcavity forms long-lived spatial structures that resemble vortices when incoherently excited by a focused pump orbiting around the cavity axis. The finely structured density of the condensates have a discrete rotational symmetry that is controlled by the orbital frequency of the pump spot and is phase coherent over its full spatial extent, despite the absence of any effective photon-photon interactions.

• Received 21 April 2021
• Accepted 2 September 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.104.L031505