ALL-OPTICAL BISTABILITY OF A P-I-P-I-N DEVICE WITH GAAS/ALAS COUPLED-QUANTUM-WELL ABSORPTION LAYERS AND AN ALAS RESISTIVE LAYER

A functionally all-optical bistability was obtained for a novel p-i-p-i-n device, in which the intrinsic region between the p and n regions contains GaAs/AlAs asymmetric coupled quantum wells and an intrinsic AlAs layer is embedded in p-AlGaAs. The typical input power density required for the bistable operation was as low as approximately 20 mW/cm2 at 77 K. The result, which seems to be attractive for application to two-dimensional data processing, is interpreted in terms of a response of a well-defined asymmetric coupled-quantum-well p-i-n photodiode with an inner feedback region.