Picosecond Emission Dynamics of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers: Spatial, Spectral, and Polarization-Resolved Characterization

Abstract—We present two-dimensional (2-D) spatially and pi-cosecond-resolved measurements of vertical-cavity surface-emit-ting lasers ’ emission, unveiling their rich dynamics, manifesting it-self in temporal changes of the modal, polarization, spectral, and spatial characteristics. The measurements providing insight into the repetitive part of the dynamics were performed with a newly developed experimental technique. In addition, we present the first 2-D, spatially resolved, single-shot event measurements which pro-vide a full complementary picture of the dynamical behavior. The experimental results are analyzed and discussed with respect to spatio-spectral interaction mechanisms of carriers and photons, explaining the observed behavior. Index Terms—Chaos, polarization, spatio-temporal dynamics, spectral dynamics, transverse modes, turn-on dynamics, ver-tical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). I