Abstract

We present multistate self-electrooptic effect devices consisting of electrically connected PIN diodes with quantum wells in the intrinsic regions. By connecting several (for example, N) of these diodes in series with a voltage source, the resultant device has N states, each of which consists of the diode with the least incident optical power having high transmission and the others having low transmission. Like the symmetric SEED, which is a special case of this device when N = 2, the devices are insensitive to optical power supply variations, have time sequential gain, and have good input/output isolation. Therefore, these devices solve many of the critical biasing problems commonly associated with multistable devices. We have measured the characteristics of this device for three such diodes and also demonstrated a special case of this device where two quantum well PIN diodes in series with a n-p-n transistor acts as an electrically enabled S-SEED.

© 1988 Optical Society of America