Applications of Photonic Crystals for Polarisation Stabilisation in VCSELs

In this work we demonstrate numerically that a photonic crystal structure with a broken C
₆
point-group symmetry etched in the top distributed Bragg mirror of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) could stabilise the polarisation of the emitted light. We present a design providing large dichroism and birefringence of the VCSEL cavity and analyse the impact of photonic-crystals parameters, such as the pitch and the hole depth on the strength of the polarisation stabilisation.