Optical switching and logic gates with vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers.
We consider a cylindrical vertical cavity surface-emitting laser with a square-shaped active region, operating with the two Gauss-Hermite modes TEM(10) and TEM(01). Using a rate-equation model that includes the effects of the linewidth enhancement factor, we identify in the parameter space two bistability domains. The two stable states are in one case the doughnut modes and in the other the modes TEM(10) and TEM(01). Focusing on the latter case, we study numerically the conditions for optical switching from one mode to the other on injection of an appropriate control beam, and we demonstrate the possibility of using the laser as a NOR logic gate.
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