Demonstration of capabilities of gallium arsenide etalons for practical optical logic

• Main Author: Hanson, Craig Demorest, 1956-
• Other Authors: Peyghambarian, Nasser
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 1989
• Subjects: Optical data processing.; Gallium arsenide semiconductors.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/277204

All-optical logic gates made from GaAs etalons were studied to see if they may be useful for optical computing. We have demonstrated that GaAs etalons may produce a change in output optical signal four times larger than the change in the input signal, and that the contrast of the output signal may be as high as 10 to 1. We have cascaded two GaAs etalons, i.e. the output change in the first causes the second one to switch. We have combined two signal beams and a biasing beam onto a GaAs etalon using polarized beams for a fan-in investigation, and have demonstrated that this setup may be used as an all-optical AND gate. We have also shown that GaAs etalons function well when interfaced to optical fibers by direct butt-coupling. Interconnections between all-optical gates by optical fibers, holographic optical elements, and conventional lenses are discussed.