Ultrafast modulation of spin and polarization in anisotropic spin-lasers

In anisotropic spin-lasers, the ultrafast dynamics of a coupled system between carrier and photon spins will be exploited to realize spin and polarization modulation at frequencies above 200 GHz, far beyond the current limits for conventional current-modulated laser devices. This makes spin-VCSELs excellent candidates not only for the next generation of ultrafast optical communication systems, but also for many other emerging applications such as polarization-based optical communication, neuromorphic computing, chaos-based random bit generation, or microwave and THz generation. Here we present our recent developments on ultrafast spin and polarization control in anisotropic spin-lasers and discuss the prospects and challenges of this new technology on its way to application.