Excitation of high frequency polarization oscillations in a modulated spin-VCSEL

I. D. HENNING; M. S. TORRE; A. HURTADO; M.J. ADAMS

Pucon

Conferencia; IX RIAO/OPTILAS 2016; 2016

RIAO

We report theoretically  and experimentally on birefringence-inducedoscillations in a spin-VCSEL under a polarized optical pump. Stability  analysis reveals Hopf bifurcations whichbound regions of limit cycles yielding sustained-amplitude oscillations at afrequency  determined by thebirefringence rate. Numerical simulation confirmthese overall finding with excellent agreement. External control ( by the pumppolarization) of these oscillation and their frequency is predictedtheoretically and confirmed experimentallyWe have investigated thebehaviour of the spin-VCSEL under a modulated polarized optical pump.Our simulations predict thathigh frequency polarization oscillations exceeding 100 GHz might be generatedusing  a spin-VCSEL due to the injectedspin-polarized electron population We have shown that it ispossible to expand the operation region of ultrafast frequency operation ofspin-VCSELs going beyond the performance limitations of traditionalsemiconductor laser sources.The amplitude of theoscillations of the polarized intensities modes has a resonant behaviour whenthe spin-VCSEL is modulated at a frequency equal to the birefringence rate ofthe device.We have characterized the parameters region where spin relaxation rate, the birefringence rate and theellipticity of the optical pump are best suited to have an oscillatorybehaviour with large oscillation amplitude in the intensities of the polarizedmodes. We hope that these results willhave several implications in the development of ultrafast laser sources withample expected impact across disparate disciplines, e.g. data communications,spectroscopy and sensing technologies to name a few.