The bistable field effect transistor (BISFET): a novel optoelectronic switching device

A novel optoelectronic device has recently been developed using an inversion channel heterostructure. This device, the bistable field effect transistor (BISFET), has been shown to exhibit electrical bistability. In this work, we describe the optical characteristics of an n-channel GaAs/AlGaAs BISFET, which make the device useful for optoelectronic switching and logic applications. It is shown that the BISFET exhibits electrical and optical bistability, as well as offering the ability to control the hysteresis (and hence, the output state of the device) with an optical input