Polarization Switching in Quantum-Dot Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

Lukasz Olejniczak (1, 2) , Marc Sciamanna (1) , Hugo Thienpont (3) , Krassimir Panajotov (2) , Alex Mutig (4) , Friedhelm Hopfer (4) , Dieter Bimberg (4)

1 LMOPS - Laboratoire Matériaux Optiques, Photonique et Systèmes
2 TONA - Department of Applied Physics and Photonics [Brussels]
3 VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel
4 Institut für Festkörperphysik

We demonstrate experimental evidence of polarization switching accompanied by polarization-mode hopping in quantum-dot vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. In our case, the polarization switching is associated with a change of linearly polarized light to elliptically polarized one, hence switching takes place between elliptically polarized states. Current-modulation measurements show that the polarization switching is of thermal origin.

Keywords: Quantum dots; semiconductor lasers

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]; Engineering Sciences [physics]; Optics / Photonic

Lukasz Olejniczak, Marc Sciamanna, Hugo Thienpont, Krassimir Panajotov, Alex Mutig, et al.. Polarization Switching in Quantum-Dot Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2009, 21 (14), pp.1008-1010. ⟨10.1109/LPT.2009.2021954⟩. ⟨hal-00406904⟩