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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Bistable output of an optically pumped vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Matthew J. Bohn, John Gerard McInerney

Published Dec 1, 1997• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report optically bistable output of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The GaAs–AlGaAs VCSEL was optically pumped with a cw Ti:sapphire laser that was tuned near a cavity resonance of the VCSEL. Using a simple Fabry–Perot model, we demonstrate that the bistability is primarily dispersive and not absorptive. Although the threshold power is high because of poor sample quality, the contrast is very large; in fact, it approaches infinity.

DOI
10.1364/josab.14.003430

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