Power-speed product of an optical flip-flop memory with optical feedback

Evaluation of optical logic gate devices in terms of a power-speed (switching time) product is discussed. An example is given for a simply fabricated optoelectronic flip-flop circuit utilizing an optical feedback. The minimum power-speed products for set and reset operations are 5 and 35 pJ, respectively. They are very small compared with previously reported optical nonlinear or bistable devices. The figure of merit is decreased by monolithic integration, by which an optical computation can be realized.<
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