Open AccessBistability of time-periodic polarization dynamics in a free-running VCSEL
Author(s) -
Martin Virte,
Marc Sciamanna,
Émeric Mercier,
Krassimir Panajotov
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.22.006772
Subject(s) - bistability , physics , polarization (electrochemistry) , optics , amplitude , limit cycle , vertical cavity surface emitting laser , semiconductor laser theory , anisotropy , bifurcation , laser , nonlinear system , quantum mechanics , chemistry
We report experimentally a bistability between two limit cycles (i.e. time-periodic dynamics) in a free-running vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. The two limit cycles originate from a bifurcation on two elliptically polarized states which exhibit a small frequency difference and whose main axes are symmetrical with respect to the linear polarization eigenaxes at threshold. We demonstrate theoretically that this peculiar behavior can be explained in the framework of the spin-flip model model by taking into account a small misalignment between the phase and amplitude anisotropies.