Elimination of transient vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser oscillations using photoactive feedback

It is demonstrated numerically that photoactive layers placed in a vertical -cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) cavity eliminate the generic transie nt oscillations caused by the increasing rate of carrier depletion with inc reasing photon flux partial derivative(dN/dt)/partial derivative P < 0. Rev ersing the sign partial derivative(dN/dt)/partial derivative P > 0, using a ppropriately chosen photoactive layers, makes the cavity relaxation frequen cy purely imaginary; the laser asymptotes to steady state without modulatio n as an overdamped oscillator. The sign reversal depends mainly on the laye r doping parameters, but not on the laser power, thus suppression holds ove r the laser operation range. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003 -6951(99)00246-6].