Polarization Properties of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

The selection of the polarization state and the transverse mode dynamics in VCSELs are two linked questions which have been extensively addressed in recent years. Theoretical studies on these topics have disregarded both the phase sensitive effects and the quantum nature of the polarization in lasers, which are known to be important in other kinds of lasers. Armed with the knowledge and the experience obtained in gas lasers along almost thirty years, we seek in this thesis a fundamental explanation for the polarization and transverse mode phenomena observed in VCSELs by considering the
fundamental aspects of the physics of semiconductors through the SFM model. Theoretical analysis, numerical simulations and experiments
will be combined to investigate the role of physical mechanisms --- such as the saturable dispersion (or $al$-factor), the VCSEL anisotropies, the spin-flip relaxation processes, and the temperature--- on the polarization and the transverse mode properties of unstrained quantum-well VCSELs.