Abstract

The characteristics of thin-film interference filters are being studied because of their potential use for parallel processing and digital optical computing.¹ Two-dimensional arrays of a large number of pixels have been envisioned to operate simultaneously in a parallel processing device.² Optical combinatorial logic, processor-to-processor communications, and crossbar interconnection are only a few of the possible parallel operations that can be addressed by a two-dimensional pixel array. Previously, Karpushko and Sinitsyn,³ and more recently, Weinberger,⁴ Olbright,⁵ and Smith⁶ have developed interference filters using ZnS and ZnSe, which exhibit room-temperature optical bistability with visible light. ZnS (375-nm band edge) is chosen here for operation at 514.5 nm where large lasers with cw power in excess of 10 watts is available, thus facilitating the potential for large array processing.

© 1985 Optical Society of America