Resonance Brillouin scattering from quantized exciton-polaritons in ultrathin epitaxial layers of ZnSe

Abstract

Resonant Brillouin scattering in ultrathin MBE-grown epitaxial layers of ZnSe with thicknesses from 50 to 200 nm is esployed to investigate the properties of the 1s exciton-polariton states. The effective masses are found different from that in bulk ZnSe caused by the energetic decoupling of heavy- and light-hole states due to strain. In the 50 nm sample the momentum selection rule is relaxed, leading to broad Brillouin lines that show fine structure due to the phonon quantization in these layers, whereby dilatation and flexural phonon modes are involved in the scattering.