Influence of optical feedback on the polarization switching of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Author

Masoller, C. ; Torre, M.S.

Author_Institution

Dept. de Fisica i Enginyeria Nucl., Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya, Montevideo, Uruguay

Volume

41

Issue

4

fYear

2005

fDate

4/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

483

Lastpage

489

Abstract

We study theoretically the effect of isotropic and polarization-selective optical feedback on the polarization switching of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. We use the framework of the spin-flip model that takes into account the spin degree of freedom of carriers in the semiconductor quantum well. We analyze the polarization switching dynamics for different values of the spin relaxation rate and find a good agreement with recent experimental results . We also study the influence of the external cavity length and find different dynamical behaviors for short and long external cavities.

Keywords

laser cavity resonators; laser feedback; light polarisation; quantum well lasers; semiconductor device models; surface emitting lasers; carrier spin degree of freedom; external cavities; isotropic optical feedback; optical feedback; polarization switching; polarization-selective optical feedback; semiconductor quantum well; spin relaxation rate; spin-flip model; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; Laser feedback; Laser modes; Laser theory; Optical feedback; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; Quantum well lasers; Semiconductor lasers; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; laser diodes; optical feedback; polarization control; polarization switching; semiconductor lasers; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2005.843923

Filename

1411950