Polarization and transverse-mode selection in quantum-well vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers: Index- and gain-guided devices
We study polarization switching and transverse-mode competition in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in the absence of temperature effects. We use a model that incorporates the vector nature of the laser field, saturable dispersion, different carrier populations associated with differ...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 1997 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/53804 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/53804 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Sumario: | We study polarization switching and transverse-mode competition in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in the absence of temperature effects. We use a model that incorporates the vector nature of the laser field, saturable dispersion, different carrier populations associated with different magnetic sublevels of the conduction and heavy hole valence bands in quantum-well media, spin-flip relaxation processes and cavity birefringence and dichroism. We consider both index- and gain-guided VCSELs and we find that spin-flip dynamics and the linewidth enhancement factor are crucial for the selection of the polarization state corresponding to a given injection current. For index-guided VCSELs the effect of spatial hole burning on the polarization behaviour within the fundamental mode regime is discussed. For gain-guided VCSELs, transverse-mode and polarization selection are studied within a Maxwell-Bloch approximation which includes field diffraction and carrier diffusion. Polarization switching is found in the fundamental mode regime. The first-order transverse mode starts lasing orthogonally polarized to the fundamental mode. At larger currents polarization coexistence with several active transverse modes occurs. |
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