Abstract

The etching or machining of grooves so as to delineate isolated areas on a nonlinear interference filters (NLIFs) inhibits transverse conduction and consequently reduced both cross-talk effects and switch powers for optically bistable arrays. Assuming one-dimensional heat-flow through an insulating layer, into a high thermal conductivity substrate, switch energies in ZnSe NLIFs of around 10 pJ μm^-2 are predicted [1,2]. The insulating layer between the NLIF and the heat-sink, which is to be pixellated, must be a non-crystalline material, for low thermal conductivity. Consequently direct etching, to form deep, narrow grooves, cannot be achieved with chemical etching techniques. Instead, we have used a laser micro-machining technique to process glass substrates, both before and after deposition of the multilayer device.

© 1988 Optical Society of America