Conditions for the observation of the surface plasmon in a semiconductor superlattice by inelastic light scattering

The authors have studied Raman scattering from the collective excitations in a semiconductor superlattice system, and analysed the reason for the small peak intensity ratio of the surface to the bulk plasmons in the Raman spectra under the usual experimental conditions. They find that the ratio has a strong dependence on the decay length of the incident photon. If the decay length is small enough the ratio will increase adequately, which is very favourable for the experimental observation of the surface plasmon.