Investigation of polarization properties of VCSELs subject to optical feedback from an extremely short external cavity-part II: experiments

The effect of isotropic optical feedback from an extremely short external cavity on the emission properties of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is experimentally investigated. When changing the external cavity length a modulation of the total power and the wavelength emitted by the VCSEL is observed with a period of half the wavelength of operation of the device. When biasing the VCSEL around its solitary (without optical feedback) polarization switching (PS) current, PS between the two linearly polarized modes is observed by changing the external cavity length. This PS is found to occur through a hysteresis region. Our experimental results show a modulation of the PS currents and the hysteresis width when changing the external cavity length with a period of half the wavelength of operation. The experimental results are well explained by a two mode rate equation model.