Spectroscopy of PolaritonicExcitations in SemiconductorsThesis presented to the Institute of Physics of the University of Dortmund, Germanyin partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree ofDoktor rer. nat.presented byGregor DasbachDortmund 2003Accepted by the faculty of the Institute of Physics of the University of Dortmund,Germany.Day of the oral exam: 7th of November 2003Examination board:Prof. Dr. Klaus WilleProf. Dr. Manfred BayerProf. Dr. Metin TolanDr. Dmitri YakovlevContents1 Motivation 12 Exciton-photon polaritons 33 Polaritons in cuprous oxide 93.1 Experimental technique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153.2 High resolution spectroscopy of polaritons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193.2.1 Interference phenomena in Cu O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2223.2.2 Polariton damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263.3 Propagation of polaritons in Cu O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3023.4 Wavevector dependent exchange interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343.4.1 Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353.4.2 Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413.4.3 Impact of strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453.5 High density effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 Polaritons in microcavities 574.1 Basic microcavity physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .