Investigation of dynamic polarization stability of 850-nm GaAs-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers grown on [311]B and [100] substrates

The polarization stability of 850-nm GaAs-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) under dynamic operation was investigated by comparing the characteristics of VCSELs grown on [311]B and [100] GaAs substrates. Significantly larger suppression ratios of the two orthogonal polarization modes was obtained for VCSELs on [311]B substrates than those on [100] substrates under zero-bias modulation. Time-dependent orthogonal polarization suppression ratio measurements also showed that the polarization direction was more stable in the VCSEL on [311]B substrates than that on [100] substrates. Error-free transmission was realized from VCSELs on [311]B substrates with and without a polarizer in both back-to-back and 100-m multimode fiber transmission.