Experimental stability maps of a 1550nm-VCSEL subject to polarized optical injection

We report an experimental study of the injection locking properties and nonlinear dynamics of a 1550nm-Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) subject to parallel and to orthogonal polarized optical injection into the two orthogonal polarizations of the fundamental transverse mode of the device. A rich variety of nonlinear dynamics have been observed for both parallel and orthogonal optical injection outside the stable locking range, including limit cycle, period doubling, chaos and polarization switching. Additionally, for the case of orthogonal optical injection, we report a first experimental observation of the change in the shape of the stability map as the applied bias current is increased well above threshold. © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.