THEORETICAL MODELING OF VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS WITH POLARIZED OPTICAL FEEDBACK

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers have two preferential polariza tion states related to the crystal axes of the quantum wells. In this work, we consider such a laser extended by means of a polarizer insert ed in an external cavity. When the phase of the external-cavity field is modulated, the laser switches from one polarization state to the ot her. Experimental and theoretical results in which spin interactions a re inserted are presented and discussed. A linear stability analysis i s applied to the two linearly polarized stationary states in the case of structures with small amplitude anisotropies. It shows how the phas e of the reinjected field affects the stability of the mode. Coefficie nts for gain compression and spontaneous noise are mandatory to obtain polarization flips in the simulations.