New wavelength domains have become accessible for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with the development of silicon nitride PICs. In particular, visible and near-infrared range is interest a sensing communication applications. The integration energy-efficient III-V lasers, such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), important expanding application portfolio However, most demonst...

This work presents development of an oxygen-based diode laser absorption sensor designed to be used in a supersonic combustion ramjet engine inlet. The sensor uses free-space propagation of light from a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) to determine the temperature, velocity and angle of attack of an engine inlet in hypersonic flow. The report outlines the method of calculating the...

We investigate the effects of the electron-hole spin dynamics on the polarization fluctuations in the light emitted from a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). The Langevin equations are derived based on a rate equation model including birefringence, dichroism and two carrier density pools separately coupled to right and left circular polarization. The results show that the carrier d...

Vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays and photodiode (PD) arrays have emerged on the market for short reach fiber communications and other applications. However, the lack of efficient, low-cost methods for light coupling and electrical connection has become a barrier to new products incorporating their high-density and parallel advantages. To address these challenges, we have de...

We show experimentally that polarization mode hopping in quantum dot vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) takes place between nonorthogonal elliptically polarized modes. In contrast to quantum well VCSELs the average dwell time decreases with injection current. This decrease is by 8 orders of magnitude: from seconds to nanoseconds and is achieved without any modifications of the VCS...

Cavity optomechanics explores the interaction between optical field and mechanical motion. So far, this interaction has relied on the detuning between a passive optical resonator and an external pump laser. Here, we report a new scheme with mutual coupling between a mechanical oscillator supporting the mirror of a laser and the optical field generated by the laser itself. The optically active c...

The conventional self-mixing sensing systems employ a detection scheme utilizing the photocurrent from an integrated photodiode. This work reports on an alternative way of implementing a Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) based self-mixing sensor using the laser junction voltage as the source of the self-mixing signal. We show that the same information can be obtained with only mino...

This paper introduces a revolutionary way to interrogate optical fiber sensors based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and to integrate the necessary driving optoelectronic components with the sensor elements. Low-cost optoelectronic chips are used to interrogate the optical fibers, creating a portable dynamic sensing system as an alternative for the traditionally bulky and expensive fiber sensor ...

We report on the theoretical analysis of a novel type of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) that provides selection of a certain higher-order transverse mode. This selection is based on a spatial variation of the threshold gain by adding an antiphase layer with an etched relief structure. The field intensity profile emitted from this laser is calculated numerically as well as with a...

We have examined noise behavior and polarization correlations in the output of a pulsed, multitransverse-mode, vertical-cavity, surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). We have measured the output of the laser simultaneously in two orthogonal, linear polarizations as a function of drive current for pulse widths of 3 ns, 10 ns, and 30 ns. We present joint probability distributions for the number of detec...