Abstract

Semiconductor laser polarization bistability, which has been recently demostrated in InGaAsP devices uniaxially stressed [1,2,3], has attracted a growing interest for application in optical signal processing and optical computing. Even devices showing only TE-TM switching would be very useful in optical fiber communication systems. Ridge waveguide semiconductor lasers (RWLs), which are widely used for their low threshold currents, seem natural candidates to polarization bistability, because, with suitable values of their geometrical parameters, they show polarization competition phenomena even without uniaxial stress [4,5].

© 1989 Optical Society of America