Chip-Scale Controlled Storage All-Optical Memory

Abstract

Abstract : Goal of the project was to demonstrate a semiconductor waveguide device suitable for use as an all-optical buffer with a slow down factor of 1000 at room temperature. Theoretical and experimental research was performed to show the feasibility of slow light in semiconductor quantum wells. Prototype GaAs quantum well devices were fabricated, and characterized at both cryogenic and ambient laboratory temperatures. Mechanisms such as coherent population oscillation (CPO) and electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) were explored. The results included several of the first ever achieved experimental and theoretical results on slow light, including the demonstration of a factor of one million times reduced light speed in semiconductor quantum wells at low temperature, a reduction of approximately 600 at room temperature, and the first observation of EIT in semiconductor quantum wells. Wide-spread interest in the subject led to an international conference starting in 2006, and helped spur new research into all-optical buffers.