Optical Information Technology State-of-the-Art Report

Research in optical information technology in Europe has been very active inrecent years. This volume records state-of-the-art research conducted in some 22 laboratories who have worked together within EC ESPRIT Basic Research Action 3199 up to 1992. The topics cover: (1) Active optical logic and switching devices - embracing new materials, nonlinear and electrooptic mechanisms as well as advanced device fabrication. These devices cover the range from all-optical nonlinear interferometer structures through hybrid optical-electronic modulators to integrated emitter-receiver structures. (2) The latest state of optical interconnect technology, embracing diffractive optics (binary and multi-level phase gratings), holographic space-variant elements and micro-refractive optics. (3) Contributions on optical information processing architecture and demonstrator projects. The materials base ranges from silicon to II-VI materials with the realisation of pn-junction devices in ZnSe. The research reported here lays the basis for long-term progress in devices for information processing.

Nonlinearities in GaAs Systems.- Nonlinear optical properties of GaAs/(AlGa) As multiple quantum wells under quasistationary high laser excitation and transversal electric fields.- Electroabsorptive/-refractive effects in asymmetric step quantum wells and BRAQWET structures.- Electrooptical modulation in vertical multiple quantum well microresonators.- Criteria for the use of nonlinear GaAs etalons for threshold logic.- Interconnect Technologies.- Synthesis of diffractive optical elements using electromagnetic theory of gratings.- The design of quasi-periodic Fourier plane array generators.- Microlenses in PMMA with high relative aperture fabricated by proton irradiation combined with monomer diffusion.- Fabrication of microoptic components by thermal imprinting.- Invariant pattern recognition: Towards neural network classifiers.- Holographic interconnect components for optical processing systems.- Binary multilevel, and hybrid holographic optical array illuminators.- II–VI-Compound Nonlinearities.- Wide bandgap II–VI light emitting devices.- Optical nonlinearities of CdS for optical addressing.- Optical nonlinearities and switching from excitons in II–VI semiconductors.- Prediction of large optical nonlinearities in quantum well wires.- Nonlinear optical properties of II–VI semiconductor quantum dots.- Optical Computer Architectures.- Optical input and output functions for a cellular automaton on a silicon chip.- Demonstration of an optical pipeline adder.- Performance and hardware requirements of parallel addition algorithms for optical implementation using SEEDs.- 2-D Parallel optoelectronic interconnect using a highly light sensitive monolithic receiver array.- O-CLIP — A demonstrator all-optical processor.- Design of a S-SEED cellular logic imageprocessor.- Thermo-Optic Devices.- Thermo-optical logic gate array using SOS waveguide.- Optical switches and oscillators based on thermally induced optical nonlinearities in II–VI semiconductors.- Thermally induced optical bistability in GaAs/(AlGa)As multiple quantum wells for application as a temperature sensor.- Chances for nonlinear optical switching elements.- III–V Bistability and Devices.- Subnanosecond switching and recovery in a Fabry-Perot etalon based on bulk heavily doped n-GaAs.- Optical bistability in quantum well semiconductor devices.- All optical bistability in a type II heterostructure.- Surface emitting laser diodes and wavelength break selective photodetectors.- The double heterostructure optical thyristor in optical information processing applications.- An architecture for a general purpose optical computer adapted to PNPN devices.- Architectural and Logic Structures.- Towards distributed statistical processing — Aquarium: A query and reflection interaction using magic: Mathematical algorithms generating interdependent confidences.- Computer-aided design of digital opto-electronic systems with HADLOP.- Microwave photonics.- Si-Based Devices.- Avalanche photodiodes for optical bistability.- On the feasibility of avalanche devices for optical switching in silicon.- Sensitivity and switching contrast optimization in an optical signal processing waveguide structure.- A Passive crystal pixel interchanger.- Attendees.