TY - JOUR
T1 - Stochastic polarization switching induced by optical injection in bimodal quantum-dot micropillar lasers
AU - Schlottmann, Elisabeth
AU - Schicke, David
AU - Krüger, Felix
AU - Lingnau, Benjamin
AU - Schneider, Christian
AU - Höfling, Sven
AU - Lüdge, Kathy
AU - Porte, Xavier
AU - Reitzenstein, Stephan
N1 - Funding: European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework ERC Grant Agreement No.615613 and from the German Science Foundation (DFG) via the collaborative research center CRC787, CRC910 and GRK1558. BL acknowledges funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 404943123.
PY - 2019/9/24
Y1 - 2019/9/24
N2 - Mutual coupling and injection locking of semiconductor lasers is of great interest in non-linear dynamics and its applications for instance in secure data communication and photonic reservoir computing. Despite its importance, it has hardly been studied in microlasers operating at μW light levels. In this context, vertically emitting quantum dot micropillar lasers are of high interest. Usually, their light emission is bimodal, and the gain competition of the associated linearly polarized fundamental emission modes results in complex switching dynamics. We report on selective optical injection into either one of the two fundamental mode components of a bimodal micropillar laser. Both modes can lock to the master laser and influence the non-injected mode by reducing the available gain. We demonstrate that the switching dynamics can be tailored externally via optical injection in very good agreement with our theory based on semi-classical rate equations.
AB - Mutual coupling and injection locking of semiconductor lasers is of great interest in non-linear dynamics and its applications for instance in secure data communication and photonic reservoir computing. Despite its importance, it has hardly been studied in microlasers operating at μW light levels. In this context, vertically emitting quantum dot micropillar lasers are of high interest. Usually, their light emission is bimodal, and the gain competition of the associated linearly polarized fundamental emission modes results in complex switching dynamics. We report on selective optical injection into either one of the two fundamental mode components of a bimodal micropillar laser. Both modes can lock to the master laser and influence the non-injected mode by reducing the available gain. We demonstrate that the switching dynamics can be tailored externally via optical injection in very good agreement with our theory based on semi-classical rate equations.
U2 - 10.1364/OE.27.028816
DO - 10.1364/OE.27.028816
M3 - Article
SN - 1094-4087
VL - 27
SP - 28816
EP - 28831
JO - Optics Express
JF - Optics Express
IS - 20
ER -