Switching of Lasing Circular Polarizations in a (110)-VCSEL

Author

Ikeda, Kazuhiro ; Fujimoto, Toshiyasu ; Fujino, Hiroshi ; Katayama, Takeo ; Koh, Shinji ; Kawaguchi, Hitoshi

Author_Institution

Grad. Sch. of Mater. Sci., Nara Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Ikoma, Japan

Volume

21

Issue

18

fYear

2009

Firstpage

1350

Lastpage

1352

Abstract

We discuss our demonstration of gigahertz switching of lasing circular polarizations in a (110) GaAs-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) obtained by optical spin injection. The (110)-VCSEL´s significantly longer spin relaxation time (2.8 ns) than its carrier lifetime (0.42 ns) enabled it to consecutively oscillate in orthogonal circular polarizations with a high degree of circular polarization, when the time delay between two optical pump pulses with orthogonal circular polarizations was longer than 1 ns. Rate equation analysis closely reproduced the measured results.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; light polarisation; optical switches; semiconductor lasers; surface emitting lasers; GaAs; VCSEL; lasing circular polarizations; optical pump pulses; optical spin injection; rate equation analysis; switching; time 0.42 ns; time 2.8 ns; vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser; (110)-oriented quantum wells (QWs); quantum-well (QW) lasers; spin lasers; spin vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2009.2026631

Filename

5166512