Photonic microwave generation in multimode VCSELs subject to orthogonal optical injection

Microwave generation is studied experimentally in a multi-transverse-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) subject to dual-beam orthogonal optical injection as well as in the single transverse mode regime of the VCSEL subject to single-beam and dual-beam injections. Comparison of the results shows that microwave oscillation obtained via dual-beam injection in the multi-transverse-mode regime has greater optical modulation depth and a larger tunable range. This agrees with the theoretical prediction qualitatively. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America