Nonlinear and bistable optical device
AssigneeAT&T Bell Laboratories
InventorDavid A. B. Miller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention is a nonlinear or bistable optical device having a low switching energy. The invention uses a means responsive to light for generating a photocurrent, a structure having a semiconductor quantum well region, and means responsive to the photocurrent for electrically controlling an optical absorption of the semiconductor quantum well region. The optical absorption of the semiconductor quantum well region varies in response to variations in the photocurrent. A photodiode or phototransistor may be used as the means responsive to light, and may be made integral with the structure having the semiconductor quantum well region. An array of devices may be fabricated on a single chip for parallel logic processing.
Claims26
An optical device comprising:
- means responsive to light for generating a photocurrent;
- wherein the improvement comprises;
- a structure having a semiconductor quantum well region;
- and
- means responsive to said photocurrent for electrically controlling an optical absorption of said semiconductor quantum well region in order to cause said optical absorption of said semiconductor quantum well region to vary in response to variations in said photocurrent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.