Bifurcation to polarization switching and locking in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with optical injection

Abstract

International audienceWe unveil the bifurcations underlying polarization switching and injection locking in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser subject to optical injection. A Hopf bifurcation, not reported for conventional edgeemitting lasers, delimits the injection locking region and influences the polarization switching conditions. We furthermore theoretically show and experimentally observe periodic dynamics at the relaxation oscillation frequency in the noninjected mode together with wave-mixing dynamics in the injected mode. These dynamics precede the polarization switching leading to injection locking and are attributed to a torus bifurcation arising on a two-polarization mode solution

Nonlinear Dynamics of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

“…The observed shape agrees qualitatively with the experimental results presented in Figure 2. The torus bifurcation TR corresponds to the excitation of two polarization mode dynamics in the route to PS and injection locking-a limit cycle in the x-LP and a wave mixing in the y-LP-which is also in agreement with the experiment [57]. The SFM model further predicts a twomode injection-locked solution, that is, elliptically polarized injection-locked state for frequency detuning close to the VCSEL birefringence [58].…”

“…The SFM equations [6,7], extended to the case of optical injection are given in [7,[57][58][59] for a singletransverse-mode VCSEL and in [56] for a multitransversemode VCSEL. For completeness, we list the SFM equations for the case of OI in a single-transverse mode VCSEL, namely,…”

Bistability in an injection locked two color laser with dual injection

“…1 Recently, dual-mode lasers, a family that includes vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), ring lasers, photonic crystal lasers, and two color Fabry-Pérot (FP) lasers, subjected to a single optical injection have been studied due to potential applications in all-optical signal processing. [2][3][4][5][6] An additional injected mode can also add functionality to multimode FP lasers. [7][8][9] However, the understanding of these dual injected FP lasers is complicated by the effects of the uninjected modes.…”

“…Patrycja Heinricht, 1,2 Benjamin Wetzel, 1,3 Stephen O'Brien, 1 Andreas Amann, 1,4 and Simon Osborne 1 A two color Fabry-Pérot laser subjected to optical injection in both modes is examined experimentally and theoretically. The theoretical analysis predicts a bistability between locked states due to a swallow-tail bifurcation, which is unique to the dual injection system.…”

Cavity Solitons in VCSEL Devices

“…In VCSELs with cylindrical symmetry, optical injection [124] or feedback [125,126] can be employed to control the polarization of light. Since polarized optical injection or optical feedback can both induce bistability [127,128], all the necessary ingredients are available for CS formation in large-aperture devices. Polarization CS could offer the practical advantage of ultrafast switching with low switching energy as was demonstrated in small polarization-bistable devices [129].…”