Abstract

Microcavity semiconductor lasers are promising devices owing to their characteristics such as very low threshold current, large modulation bandwidth, etc.; in particular noise properties have been widely studied in recent years, showing peculiar characteristics, but only with reference to single mode operation. However common microcavity structures present geometrical symmetries such that two modes, corresponding to orthogonal polarizations, can simultaneously lase [1]. These two modes are tightly coupled by different mechanisms, such as slight geometrical asymmetries, material anisotropies etc., both inside the cavity and in the mirrors, which remove the degeneracy.

© 1998 IEEE