Optical gate realization by laser crossing in thin-film semiconductors on glass

Abstract

We investigated a novel possibility to attain all-optical logical gates. The host of the device was a thin-film semiconductor (CdS, GaAs, InP) on glass produced by various methods (pulsed-laser deposition and metal organic chemical vapor deposition). In the thin-film two visible laser beams, the primary and secondary ray, were crossed in the same spot. In this way, the secondary beam caused a transmission decrease in the primary beam. Laser crossing is an extremely undemanding concept based on electronic absorption alterations. Apparently, every semiconductor can be used for laser crossed all-optical logics and, in contrary to other semiconductor based concepts, laser crossing does not demand specific materials, material qualities or nonlinear features. The unmatched overall simplicity and possible THz operations recommend laser crossing for the realization of all-optical digital devices.

Introduction of glass/GaAs interfaces for all-optical and hybrid switch fabrics

“…Neither necessarily linked to concepts described in the 'classical' literature [1][2][3] nor going distinctly along with currently discussed optical techniques in [13][14][15][16][17], we introduced all-optical operations via laser crossing (LC) in thin-film semiconductors (CdS, GaAs and InP) on glass [18][19][20][21][22]. The main advantaging difference between LC and other concepts is its low-cost realization potential due to extreme straightforwardness of the basic principle.…”