Characteristics of polarization switching from the low to the high frequency mode in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Polarization selection in small-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is studied experimentally in dependence of injection current and substrate temperature in the vicinity of the minimum threshold condition. Polarization switching from the low to the high frequency fundamental spatial mode is demonstrated. The effective birefringence displays a minimum in the transition region. The observation of dynamical transition states hints to the relevance of nonlinear effects. A comparison to the predictions of the San Miguel–Feng–Moloney model based on phase-amplitude coupling is given.

[1]  K. Choquette,et al.  Temperature dependence of gain‐guided vertical‐cavity surface emitting laser polarization , 1994 .

[2]  San Miguel M,et al.  Light-polarization dynamics in surface-emitting semiconductor lasers. , 1995, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[3]  Neal B. Abraham,et al.  Polarization properties of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers , 1997 .

[4]  H. Thienpont,et al.  Polarization switching in VCSEL's due to thermal lensing , 1998, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[5]  J. P. Woerdman,et al.  Polarization modal noise and dichroism in vertical-cavity semiconductor lasers , 1999 .

[6]  J. P. Woerdman,et al.  Polarization switching of a vertical-cavity semiconductor laser as a Kramers hopping problem , 1999 .

[7]  J. Rocca,et al.  Polarization switching in vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers observed at constant active region temperature , 1997 .

[8]  M. Travagnin.  Linear anisotropies and polarization properties of vertical-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor lasers , 1997 .

[9]  Henryk Temkin,et al.  Polarization instability and relative intensity noise in vertical‐cavity surface‐emitting lasers , 1995 .

[10]  Jerome V Moloney,et al.  Microscopic theory of polarization properties of optically anisotropic vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers , 2000 .

[11]  H. van der Lem,et al.  Saturation-induced frequency shift in the noise spectrum of a birefringent vertical-cavity surface emitting laser. , 1997, Optics letters.

[12]  J. P. Harbison,et al.  Dynamic, polarization, and transverse mode characteristics of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers , 1991 .

[13]  Woerdman,et al.  Anatomy of a polarization switch of a vertical-cavity semiconductor laser , 2000, Physical review letters.

[14]  H. Thienpont,et al.  Effect of photon-energy-dependent loss and gain mechanisms on polarization switching in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers , 1999 .