Optically-pumped dilute nitride spin-VCSEL

Abstract

Abstract:We report the first room temperature optical spin-injection of a dilute nitride 1300 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) under continuous-wave optical pumping. We also present a novel experimental protocol for the investigation of optical spin-injection with a fiber setup. The experimental results indicate that the VCSEL polarization can be controlled by the pump polarization, and the measured behavior is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions using the spin flip model. The ability to control the polarization of a long-wavelength VCSEL at room temperature emitting at the wavelength of 1.3 µm opens up a new exciting research avenue for novel uses in disparate fields of technology ranging from spintronics to optical telecommunication networks. ©2012 Optical Society of America

Spin-flip model of spin-polarized vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers: Asymptotic analysis, numerics, and experiments

“…The fibre-based experimental set-up has been described in detail elsewhere [7,15,17] and hence only a brief summary is given here. A commercial CW 980 nm laser which is controlled in terms of its polarisation and output power (via the current) is used to optically pump the VCSEL sample.…”

“…A commercial CW 980 nm laser which is controlled in terms of its polarisation and output power (via the current) is used to optically pump the VCSEL sample. The active region of the sample consists of a 3-λ cavity that contains five groups of three GaInNAs (λ= 1300nm) quantum wells (QWs), sandwiched between high reflectivity Bragg mirror stacks; full details are given in [17]. Lasing emission from the optically pumped spin-VCSEL sample is characterised in terms of output power, wavelength, polarisation and their stability, all as a function of pump conditions.…”

Control of emitted light polarization in a 1310 nm dilute nitride spin-vertical cavity surface emitting laser subject to circularly polarized optical injection

“…16 Whilst most work has concentrated on short-wavelength spin-VCSELs, 2,11,12 recently, the first long-wavelength spin-VCSEL emitting at the important telecom wavelength of 1300 nm and operating at room temperature under Continuous Wave (CW) optical pumping has been demonstrated. 13 In that work, the polarization of the optical pump showed full controllability over the polarization of the spin-VCSEL. 13 Utilizing such control potentially offers promising applications in spin-dependent switches for optical telecommunications, optical information and data storage, reconfigurable optical interconnects, quantum computing, bandwidth enhancement, encrypted communications, and biomedical sensing.…”

“…13 In that work, the polarization of the optical pump showed full controllability over the polarization of the spin-VCSEL. 13 Utilizing such control potentially offers promising applications in spin-dependent switches for optical telecommunications, optical information and data storage, reconfigurable optical interconnects, quantum computing, bandwidth enhancement, encrypted communications, and biomedical sensing. 5,[17][18][19] Optical injection using a linearly polarized coherent external signal into conventional (electrically driven) VCSELs induces novel nonlinear responses which offer additional unique functionality, and performance enhancements leading to a wider range of potential applications.…”

Temperature Performance of Gainnas-Based Photonic Crystal Waveguide Modulators

“…These materials realize very good electron confinement in the active region and, thanks to a large conduction band offset, lead to lasers with excellent high-temperature performance and uncooled operation in a wide temperature range (e.g., up to 110 • C) [9][10][11][12][13]. Dilute nitrides proved advantageous in different applications in optical communication systems such as Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA) [14], optical active switches [15], vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) [16], ridge lasers [17], and disk lasers [18]. This paper focuses on the temperature performance of GaInNAs-based semiconductor devices, for next generation communication networks and photonic integrated circuits.…”