Experimental coherent control of lasers

We experimentally demonstrate coherent control of a laser. A resonant 100-fs optical pulse is injected into a vertical cavity surface emitting laser to introduce a field component with well-defined phase and thereby excite beating oscillations between the transverse lasing modes. By changing the relative phase between two injected pulses, we can enhance or destroy the beating oscillations and select which lasing modes are excited. We discuss resonant pulse injection into lasers and show how mode competition improves controllability by suppressing the phase-sensitive effects of the carriers.