Control of broad-area vertical-cavity surface emitting laser emission by optically induced photonic crystals

Abstract

We control the emission properties of a broad-area vertical-cavity surface emitting laser by coupling it to an external feedback cavity containing a photorefractive crystal with an optically induced photonic lattice. The periodic modulation of the refractive index serves as a tunable filter and enables the dynamic suppression of unwanted spatial instabilities and modes, as originally suggested by Gomila [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 253904 (2004)]. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.