POLARIZATION CONTROL OF VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS THROUGH USE OF AN ANISOTROPIC GAIN DISTRIBUTION IN [110]-ORIENTED STRAINED-QUANTUM-WELL STRUCTURES

An analysis of the in-plane optical matrix elements connected with the gain distribution of (In,Ga)As-GaAs quantum-well structures on (110) GaAs substrates is presented, The in-plane gain distribution is found to be anisotropic-with a maximum directed along the [($) over bar 110]-[1 $($) over bar$$ 10] crystallographic axis, Optically-pumped vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers on the (110) surface with these quantum wells in the cavity exhibit stable, well-defined polarization states; this stability is believed to be a consequence of the predicted anisotropic gain distribution on the (110) surface, Of the two orthogonal eigen polarizations observed, the one with the higher optical intensity, for a given pump power, was found to be stablized along the [($) over bar 110] crystallographic axis; this is in agreement with the analysis.