A 2-KBIT ARRAY OF SYMMETRIC SELF-ELECTROOPTIC EFFECT DEVICES

We have built and tested a 64 × 32 array of symmetric self-electrooptic effect devices, each of which can be operated as a memory element or logic gate. The required optical switching energies of the devices were ~800 fj and ~2.5 pj at 6 and 15 V bias, respectively, and the fastest switching time that we measured was ~ 1 ns. Either state of the devices could be held with continuous or pulsed incident optical signals with average optical incident power per input beam of ~ 200 nW or less than 1 mW for the entire array. Photocurrent and reflectivity were measured for all 2048 devices and only one device failed to have negative resistance required for bistability, and only nine of the devices fell outside a band of ± 20 percent of the mean. Additionally, over 200 devices in the array were operated in parallel using low-power semiconductor laser diodes. © 1990 IEEE