Strong coupling: resonant effects
This chapter presents experimental studies performed on planar semiconductor microcavities in the strong-coupling regime. The first section reviews linear experiments performed in the 1990s that evidence the linear optical properties of cavity exciton-polaritons. The chapter is then focused on experimental and theoretical studies of resonantly excited microcavity emission. We mainly describe experimental configuations in which stimulated scattering was observed due to formation of a dynamical condensate of polaritons. Pump-probe and cw experiments are described in addition. Dressing of the polariton dispersion and bistability of the polariton system due to inter-condensate interactions are discussed. The semiclassical and the quantum theories of these effects are presented and their results analysed. The potential for realization of devices is also discussed.