Frequency response of polarization switching in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Year: 2003

Authors: Verschaffelt G., Albert J., Nagler B., Peeters M., Danckaert J., Barbay S., Giacomelli G., Marin F.

Autors Affiliation: Dep. of Applied Physics and Photonics, Vrije Univ. Brussels, 1050 Brussels, Belgium;
Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy;
INFM, Firenze, Italy;
LENS, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy;
Dip. di Fisica, Università di Firenze, Italy

Abstract: We present an experimental study of the current-driven polarization modulation properties of VCSELs. In some VCSELs, abrupt polarization switching (PS) between two polarization modes is observed at a particular value of the pump current. We investigate the dynamics and the associated dominating time scales of PS as these features are strongly linked with the-underlying physical mechanism causing the PS. To this end, we measure both for gain- and index-guided VCSELs the critical modulation amplitude, necessary to steadily force PS back and firth across the PS point as a function. of the modulation frequency. This yields the current-driven polarization modulation frequency response, which we compare with the thermal frequency response of the studied devices. The dynamic behavior turns out to be strikingly different for the different VCSEL types. Thermal effects only play a minor role in the PS in our index-guided VCSELs, while they really seem to lie at the origin of PS in the gain-guided VCSELs. By implementing this in a rate-equation based theoretical model, we are able to explain the peculiarities of the measured response curves and to reproduce the experimental findings.

Journal/Review: IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS

Volume: 39 (10)      Pages from: 1177  to: 1186

More Information: Manuscript received January 9, 2003; revised June 9, 2003. The work of J. Danckaert, G. Verschaffelt, and B. Nagler was supported by the Fund for Scientific Research–Flanders (FWO). The work of J. Albert was supported by the Institute for Science and Technology–Flanders (IWT). This work was supported by the Belgian Office for Scientific, Technical, and Cultural affairs through the framework of the Interuniversity Attraction Pole program, by the Concerted Research Action “Photonics in Computing” and the Research Council (OZR) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, and by the European COST (#268). The collaboration between the groups in Brussels and Florence was made possible through the European RTN network VISTA (Contract HPRN-CT-2000-00034).
KeyWords: amplitude modulation; numerical analysis; optical polarization; stochastic systems; surface-emitting lasers
DOI: 10.1109/JQE.2003.817241

Citations: 24
data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-11-17
References taken from IsiWeb of Knowledge: (subscribers only)
Connecting to view paper tab on IsiWeb: Click here
Connecting to view citations from IsiWeb: Click here