Analyses and experiments on integrated optical multivibrators using electrooptically controlled bistable optical devices

Three different types of integrated optical multivibrators, astable, bistable, and monostable ones, based on hybrid bistable optical devices are proposed and analyzed for the first time using a pair of electrooptical switches with suitable electronic feedback loops. Preliminary experiments demonstrating these three regimes of optical multivibrators were performed using a pair of integrated Mach-Zehnder (MZ) type interferometric optical switches made of Ti-indiffused LiNbO3waveguides. The experimental results obtained were in good agreement with the theoretical analyses, and thus verified clearly their feasibility and practical capability. The purely integrated version of these optical multivibrators could probably be used as a key element for high density and fast optical logic, for use in optical digital data processing as well as the optical computer of the future.