Investigation of polarization switching of VCSEL subject to intensity modulated and optical feedback

•We have considered the effects of modulation frequency and amplitude to Investigation of polarization switching (PS) properties under a range of bias current.•We have shown that both modulation frequency and amplitude does lead to a significant change in PS properties, thus limiting effects of optical feedback on the polarization properties of VCSEL.•The results show that there is no PS for modulation frequency =200 MHz.•We also demonstrated that the bias current can affect the PS dynamic of VCSEL.

This study presents the results of an experimental investigation of the polarization switching (PS) of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) using the so-called polarization-rotated optical feedback mechanism. In particular, the experiments is performed by changing the laser driving current, optical feedback (OF) level, modulation signal parameters, such as frequency, modulation-depth in order to assess their influences on the PS of VCSEL. We show that a smaller polarization angle θp is required to realize PS with increasing the level of OF. Moreover, for a fixed OF level and increased bias current a smaller θp is required to ensure PS. However, for a fixed OF and variable modulation parameters, both the frequency and modulation-depth lead to the elimination of PS over the entire range of measurement.