A simple new pump geometry for optical excitation of microcavities and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is presented. The technique circumvents the high reflectivity of the cavity stop band by excitation through the substrate at a large angle of incidence. Under these conditions, the reflectivity of the bottom Bragg reflector is small, and optical pumping at any desired photon energy becomes possible. Experimental results for optical excitation with this new geometry are compared with resonant optical pumping through the cavity mode.
