Hyper-Raman scattering in semiconductors: A quantum optical process in thestrong-coupling regime

We present a theory of hyper-Raman scattering in semiconductors. The theory provides a microscopic description of this process intimately tied to the quantization of the electromagnetic field. The exciton-photon coupling is t reated nonperturbatively to include polariton effects and the Coulomb inter action between electrons is treated beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation o f semiconductor Bloch equations. The theory demonstrates the: role of the q uantum-mechanical zero-point motion of excitons in the optical decay of the virtually excited biexcitons into two final polaritons or a longitudinal e xciton and a polariton. We calculate the steady state emission spectrum and present numerical results for CuCl.