Polarization Modulation in Quantum-Dot Spin-VCSELs for Ultrafast Data Transmission

• Published in: IEEE journal of quantum electronics Vol. 59; no. 5; p. 1
• Main Authors: Tselios, Christos, Georgiou, Panagiotis, Politi, Christina, Hurtado, Antonio, Alexandropoulos, Dimitris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.10.2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Communications systems; Computation; Data transmission; Decay rate; Emission analysis; Impact analysis; Light emission; Light modulation; Light sources; Modulation; Multiplexing; Optical communication; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; Optical pumping; Parameters; Photonics; Photons; Polarization; Polarization (spin alignment); polarization dynamics; Polarization modulation; Quantum dots; Quantum wells; Quantum-Dot spin-VCSEL; ultrafast spin-lasers; Vertical cavity surface emission lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers
• ISSN: 0018-9197; 1558-1713
• DOI: 10.1109/JQE.2023.3296732

Spin-Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (spin-VCSELs) are undergoing increasing research effort for new paradigms in high-speed optical communications and photon-enabled computing. To date research in spin-VCSELs has mostly focused on Quantum-Well (QW) devices. However, novel Quantum-Dot (QD) spin-VCSELs, offer enhanced parameter controls permitting the effective, dynamical and ultrafast manipulation of their light emission's polarization. In the present contribution we investigate theoretically in detail the operation of QD spin-VCSELs subject to polarization modulation for their use as ultrafast light sources in optical communication systems. We reveal that QD spin-VCSELs outperform their QW counterparts in terms of modulation efficiency, yielding a nearly two- fold improvement. We also analyse the impact of key device parameters in QD spin-VCSELs (e.g. photon decay rate and intra-dot relaxation rate) on the large signal modulation performance with regard to simulated optical modulation amplitude and eye-diagram opening penalty. We show that in addition to exhibiting enhanced polarization modulation performance for data rates up to 250 Gb/s , QD spin-VCSELs enable operation in dual (ground and excited state) emission thus allowing future exciting routes for multiplexing of information in computing and processing applications.