Semiconductor Spin-Lasers

Both conventional lasers and spin-lasers share three main elements: the active (gain) region, the resonant cavity (resonator), and the pump, which injects (optically or electrically) energy/ carriers. A typical vertical geometry, for so-called vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) [10] used in spin-lasers is illustrated in Figure 38.3. It is similar to the Faraday geometry of spin light emitting diodes (spin-LEDs) [7], which leads to well-de¢ned 38.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................731 38.2 Conventional Semiconductor Lasers ....................................................................................732