Suppression of polarization switching in birefringent antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

Author

Chen, N.S. ; Yu, S.F. ; Tee, C.W.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Nanyang Technol. Univ., Singapore, Singapore

Volume

16

Issue

3

fYear

2004

fDate

3/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

711

Lastpage

713

Abstract

Influence of birefringence on the multimode operation of antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is analyzed. It can be shown that polarization switching is mainly due to thermal lensing effects. Hence, a new design rule is proposed to optimize the dimensions of ARROW for the suppression of polarization switching. Using the optimized design, the maximum single-polarization output power of VCSELs can be tripled. In addition, it is shown that the performance of the optimized ARROW VCSELs will not be deteriorated by the uncertainty of birefringence.

Keywords

birefringence; integrated optics; laser cavity resonators; laser modes; light polarisation; optical design techniques; optical hole burning; semiconductor lasers; surface emitting lasers; thermal lensing; waveguide lasers; antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide; birefringence; multimode operation; multitransverse modes; optimised VCSEL; polarization switching suppression; semiconductor laser modeling; single-polarization output power; spatial hole burning; thermal lensing effects; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers; Birefringence; Design optimization; Optical polarization; Optical surface waves; Optical waveguides; Surface emitting lasers; Surface waves; Thermal lensing; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; Waveguide lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2004.823748

Filename

1269770