The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 11, 1991
Filed:
Nov. 12, 1985
Mario Dagenais, Wellesley, MA (US);
Wayne F Sharfin, Lexington, MA (US);
GTE Laboratories Incorporated, Waltham, MA (US);
Abstract
The I.sub.2 bound exciton in cadmium sulfide (bound to a neutral donor) is a very efficient radiator, providing low switching energy and fast switching times for an ON and OFF optical bistable device, desirable for all-optical signal processing applications. The optical bistable device for light at a given wavelength includes a Fabry-Perot cavity having a pair of opposed mirrored surfaces. A direct bandgap semiconductor, such as CuCl, CdSe, CdS, and GaAs having a bound exciton, is located within the cavity. The cavity is tuned near resonance of the light. The bound exciton has a coefficient of absorption tuned near resonance. A light beam of varying intensity is applied from without the cavity to one of the surfaces. The semiconductor has both an index of refraction and a coefficient of absorption that vary with the magnitude of applied light. Thus, light applied thereto passes through the device either substantially unimpeded or impeded, dependent upon its magnitude.