Scalable Electro-Optic Control of Localized Bistable Switching in Broad-Area VCSELs Using Reconfigurable Funnel Waveguides

We demonstrate a steplike optical modulation based on the activation and deactivation of a bistable localized structure using a photoinduced and reconfigurable miniaturized 30 x 30 mu m electroactivated funnel waveguide. Control of a single 10-mu m-diameter spot in a 200-mu m-diameter vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser at 980 nm is achieved modulating the phase of an exciting beam in the specific position of the spot in the cavity. This localized on-off response can be scaled into arrays and offer a possible route to fast integrated optical logical functions and memory at low intensities at near-infrared wavelengths.