Controlled Exciton-Photon Interaction in Semiconductor Bulk Microcavities

We report the first experimental investigation of the spectral response of a "bulk microcavity": a semiconductor system in which the same cavity material is the active medium. Despite the smaller oscillator strength of the bulk exciton, a Rabi splitting even clearer than that displayed by usual quantum-well microcavities is observed. The splitting increases with the cavity layer thickness and the exciton dispersion produces a satellite structure due to quantum confinement. We also show that control of the exciton-photon interaction can be realized by suitably tailoring the photonic wave function.