Polarization effects in Optically-Injected Long-Wavelength Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers

We present our work studying the effects of polarized optical injection in Long-Wavelength Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (LW-VCSELs). The properties of the polarization switching (PS) and bistability (PB) arising in these devices under orthogonally-polarized optical injection are discussed. We also review our experimental and theoretical analyses on the injection locking and nonlinear dynamics that appear in LW-VCSELs under different polarized injection. Finally, we also report the instabilities induced in spin-polarized VCSELs. This rich variety of nonlinear effects observed at the important telecom wavelength of 1550 nm offers exciting prospects for the practical use of VCSELs in novel applications in optical networks.