Abstract

Polarization control in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is important because the devices in which VCSELs are used, such as magneto-optical discs or optical interconections, often use polarization-sensitive elements such as beam spliters. Additionally, a great advantage of VCSELs is that they can readily be used to form arrays; thus, polarization must be controlled for not only single VCSELs but also VCSEL arrays. However, since the VCSEL polarization direction is not determined, the polarization direction of the emitted light is random. In previous works, efforts have been made to control polarization, however, polarization still remains uncontrolled, especially in array form¹-³.

© 1995 Optical Society of America