ELECTROOPTICAL AND OPTOOPTICAL DEVICES BASED ON N-I-P-I DOPING SUPERLATTICES

After a brief review of the physical phenomena we discuss the importance of selective contacts and the advantage of reverse bias for high speed and high sensitivity operation of n-i-p-i optical devices. We report on fast n-i-p-i detectors and threshold switches with high and externally adjustable gain. We present various types of n-i-p-i and hetero n-i-p-i modulators and non-linear and/or bistable optical devices. Finally we outline the concept of n-i-p-i based optical gates composed of switches and modulators which seems intrinsically superior to SEED-type gates, due to increased contrast ratios and much lower (optical and electrical) energy dissipation. © 1990.