Recent progress in polarization bistable VCSELs

Abstract

We overview recent status of polarization-bistable VCSELs and their applications to optical buffer memory. All-optical flip-flop operation was achieved at a record low bias current of 0.85 mA using 980 nm polarization-bistable VCSELs with an oxidation confinement structure. Using four 1.55 μm polarization-bistable VCSELs, we constructed a 4 bit optical buffer memory. Here, two sets of the shift-register memory connected in parallel.