Complex polarization dynamics in a VCSEL with external polarization-selective feedback

Abstract

Complicated dynamical regimes are found in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with polarized optical feedback. The dynamics depends on the interplay between the intrinsic and external anisotropies that determine the strength of the coupling (and mixing) of the orthogonally polarized eigenstates of the solitary laser. When there is anisotropic feedback for emission initially on one eigenstate, low-frequency pulsations arise via excitation of the field of the second eigenstate.