The influence of current noise on polarization mode hopping in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) often present switching between two orthogonal polarization states when varying parameters like e.g. current or temperature. Around such a switching point, the system randomly jumps between these two polarization states (mode hopping), driven by noise. In this contribution, we present experimental and numerical results showing the effect of coloured noise, externally added to the current, on the switching characteristics of a VCSEL.

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