Demonstration of efficient spin injection in a CW VECSEL at RT and dynamic control of its polarization state

Near-threshold high spin amplification in a 1300 nm GaInNAs spin laser

“…This is seen as a rapid transition between left and right-circular VCSEL polarisation (LCP, RCP) for small changes in pump ellipticity. Similar strong switching has been reported before in [8,9]. In the former case, for an external cavity (VECSEL) emitting at 1500 nm, only relatively low resultant ellipticities of the VCSEL output were achieved, even for completely circular input (pump) polarisation.…”

“…In addition, multiple lateral modes can affect the polarisation response, so determining the modal properties experimentally, and modelling their effects [25] should also be considered. Nevertheless with the SFM alone we see some indication of the sensitivity for high spin amplification to the parameters γ a and γ p , as discussed in [8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], and it is clear from the SFM (see equation ( 2)) that minimisation of γ a and γ p is essential for high spin amplification. Practically this might be achieved by balancing residual strain in the device by methods such as temperature control, patterning or application of mechanical stress.…”

“…Spintronic lasers can be realised as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), where the vertical geometry and conservation of angular momentum allows the transfer of electron spin to optical ellipticity. Attributes of spin-VCSELs such as threshold reduction [1][2][3], polarisation control [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] and spin amplification [4][5][6]9] have been demonstrated. In addition to these static properties, the fast spin-dynamics of these lasers have been investigated [9,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], and promise enhanced performance for applications such as high data rate communications.…”

Optically pumped VECSELs: review of technology and progress

“…This work is related to the possibility of fabricating spin-injected VECSELs, whose performance was initially found to be limited by residual birefringence [238]. Consequently, an accurate measurement technique for quantifying the residual birefringence was developed by Frougier et al [239], which then led to the demonstration of a spininjected VECSEL [240,241]. The VECSEL utilized an intracavity perovskite lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) electro-optic ceramic element with a controllable birefringence that enabled the offsetting of the residual birefringence of the VECSEL gain element.…”