Abstract

For reasons of speed and economy, applications of dispersive optical bistability are likely to concentrate on solid-state devices of small volume. In this paper we will discuss the modelling and optimisation of such devices, particularly in relation to possible pixel size and spatial resolution. Diffusion (1,2), rather than diffraction (3), is the dominant transverse coupling mechanism in the two current solid-state systems (InSb etalon (4) and ZnSe-spaced interference filter (5)), capable of cw hold and optical address, but we will argue that in an optimised device diffraction and diffusion will be equally important.

© 1985 Optical Society of America