Analysis on temporal dynamics of polarization switching in an injection-locked 1550 nm wavelength VCSEL

초록

Dynamics of polarization switching of a single-mode 1550 nm VCSEL output under short pulse injection in an orthogonal polarization to its free-running polarization-mode was studied. The main free-running mode of the VCSEL shows a delayed recovery response after the orthogonally polarized laser injection of very short pulse width of 50 ps. Numerical simulation on the experimentally observed results with a spin-flip model suggests that the delayed recovery response of the main-mode of VCSEL is caused by the long cavity photon lifetime and the relatively long upper level lifetimes compared to the short injection-pulse width. In order to have the minimum delayed recovery to the free-running polarization-mode of the VCSEL under orthogonally polarized short pulse injection, an optimum bias-current condition of the VCSEL has been also measured.