Tandem coupled cavity lasers with separate current control and high parasitic resistance between them for bistability and negative resistance characteristics and use thereof for optical disc readout

Patent · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5847995

Yariv, A; Harder, C; Lau, K L

A two-segment contact buried heterostructure (BH) laser is pumped by a current applied to its absorber contact from a source of high impedance on the order of 100K..cap omega.. or more. The parasitic resistance between the absorber contact and the gain contact is high on the order of 10K..cap omega... For a given absorber (bias) current the laser exhibits a relatively wide hysteresis on the order of 1 mA or more in the light vs. gain contact current. Such a laser is highly useful as a bistable optical element. The laser is also bistable with selected pump gain and absorber currents to exhibit a wide hysteresis of voltage across the absorber contact vs. relative amounts of light which is reflected back to the laser as feedback. The laser serve both as a light source and as a detector for reading out binary information stored as light reflective spots on a medium, e.g. a video disk.

• Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Patent Number(s): US 4562569
• OSTI ID: 5847995
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420300* -- Engineering-- Lasers-- (-1989)
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDES
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
AMPLIFICATION
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
BEAM CURRENTS
CURRENTS
DESIGN
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRIC CONTACTS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTRICAL PUMPING
EQUIPMENT
FEEDBACK
GAIN
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
HETEROJUNCTIONS
HYSTERESIS
JUNCTIONS
LASERS
LIGHT SOURCES
MILLI AMP BEAM CURRENTS
PERFORMANCE
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
PUMPING
RADIATION SOURCES
READOUT SYSTEMS
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS
STABILITY