Probing Microcavity Polariton Superfluidity through Resonant Rayleigh Scattering

We study the motion of a polariton fluid injected into a planar microcavity by a continuous wave laser. In the presence of static defects, the spectrum of the Bogoliubov-like excitations reflects onto the shape and intensity of the resonant Rayleigh scattering emission pattern in both momentum and real space. We find a superfluid regime in which the Rayleigh scattering ring in momentum space collapses as well as its normalized intensity. We show how collective excitation spectra having no analog in equilibrium systems can be observed by tuning the excitation angle and frequency.