Abstract

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are known to be very sensitive to polarization instabilities, i.e. the linear polarization state appearing at threshold is not stable but gives way to the orthogonal one as the current is increased [1,2]. Many aspects of this switching behaviour can be understood by considering linear, but temperature dependent gain or loss anisotropies for the two polarization modes which are frequency split by birefringence [1]. Other aspects require the inclusion of nonlinear dispersion [2]. The interplay between the different effects is still not fully clarified. Furthermore, it was noted that the primary polarization can be recovered after a second polarization switching [1], an intriguing fact, which is however poorly investigated.

© 2000 IEEE