All-optical inverter based on long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Author

Onishi, Yutaka ; Nishiyama, Nobuhiko ; Caneau, Catherine ; Koyama, Fumio ; Zah, Chung-en

Author_Institution

Microsyst. Res. Center, Tokyo Inst. of Technol., Yokohama, Japan

Volume

11

Issue

5

fYear

2005

Firstpage

999

Lastpage

1005

Abstract

An all-optical inverter using transverse mode switching in a 1.5-μm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) was demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. The fundamental mode in a single-mode VCSEL was strongly suppressed when external light was injected into an LP02 high-order mode, resulting in an on-off ratio of over 20 dB. The polarization dependence of the static optical input--output characteristics of inverter operations was as low as ∼13%. The VCSEL-based optical inverter operated with a 5-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) input signal. A theoretical result using two-mode rate equations is in good agreement with experimental results.

Keywords

laser cavity resonators; laser mode locking; laser modes; light polarisation; semiconductor lasers; surface emitting lasers; 1.5 mum; 5 Gbit/s; LP02 high-order mode; VCSEL; all-optical inverter; injection locking; long-wavelength laser; nonreturn-to-zero input signal; static optical input-output characteristics; transverse-mode switching; two-mode rate equations; vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser; Injection-locked oscillators; Inverters; Laser mode locking; Laser theory; Nonlinear optics; Optical polarization; Optical signal processing; Optical surface waves; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; All-optical inverter; dynamic behavior; injection locking; transverse mode; vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1077-260X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSTQE.2005.854279

Filename

1564034