Electrically-injected, spin-polarized, quantum well vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

In summary, the authors have demonstrated controlled switching between left- and right- elliptically polarized modes in a VCSEL using a ferromagnetic semiconductor to align hole spins. The experiment proves that the concept of spin injection applies equally well for semiconductor lasers as it does for LEDs. Spin transport occurs across a distance of -0.25 mum for temperatures ranging from 80 to 105 K. Future work will concentrate on increasing II_CP by designing spin-VCSELs with In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum dot active regions and incorporating spin-aligner layers that will allow operation at higher temperatures