Observation of increase in Raman intensity of surface phonon polaritons on rough surfaces of ZnTe

An increase in Raman intensity of surface phonon polaritons has been observed in free-standing thin slabs (thickness ～ 7 μm) of single- crystal ZnTe with rough surfaces by a conventional Raman-scattering technique at room temperature. The samples with various root-mean- square roughness heights have been prepared by making use of final polishing powders with different mean-grit sizes, and the surface roughness has been confirmed by measuring the intensities of the diffuse scattering of the laser light. The increase of the Raman intensity is proportional to the mean-square height of the surface roughness, and the shift of the dispersion relation is also proportional to it. The frequency shift is explained by a perturbation theory of the surface-roughness-induced scattering.