Resonance Rayleigh scattering from semiconductor heterostructures: The role of radiative coupling - art. no. 045330

The resonance Rayleigh scattering from disordered semiconductor heterostruc tures is investigated. Within a generalized transfer-matrix approach, the p ropagation of the optical field and the linear material response in the pre sence of disorder are solved self-consistently. To investigate the role of radiative coupling, studies for a single quantum well, multiple quantum wel ls, and a quantum well embedded in a microcavity are performed. It is shown that the dynamics of the resonance Rayleigh scattered signals is not only determined by the underlying disorder potential. but also by the properties of the polaritonic eigenmodes of the system. In certain cases the polarito nic coupling effects even dominate over the disorder.