Raman Scattering Enhancement by Optical Confinement in a Semiconductor Planar Microcavity

We report optical-phonon Raman scattering enhancements of over 4 orders of magnitude in a λ2 semiconductor planar microcavity. By varying the incidence angle both excitation and Stokes photons can simultaneously resonate with the cavity mode, their fields being strongly amplified. We demonstrate the cavity geometry as a promising tool to study solid state excitations in reduced dimensions with highly increased sensitivity.