Bistable-Optical Devices.

The possibility of fabricating a bistable optical device BOD was first suggested in 1969, and the first demonstration was performed in 1976. Since then, several different implementations have been reported in the literature. The potential applications of these devices include memory elements, optical limiting, switching, logic gates, and optical triodes. If performed in an integrated-optics format, it can be expected that the devices can be fabricated with a high packing density, operate at very high speeds, and perform with low power consumption. This contract effort theoretically investigated the characteristics of bistable optical devices, experimentally fabricated selected device implementations, and studied potential applications. This report describes, in detail, the operating characteristics of the nonlinear Fabry-Perot and the nonlinear ring resonator. We show that although the nonlinear ring resonator requires more power, it has capabilities far greater than the nonlinear Fabry-Perot. Having obtained the operating characteristics, we proceed to examine how one could use these devices in useful optical circuits. Specifically, we consider optical full adders and optical key generators.