Side-light-injection MQW bistable laser using saturable absorption and gain quenching

The characteristics of set-on and set-off operations by input light of the same wavelength have been observed in a side-light-injection MQW bistable laser. In this structure, the main bistable laser was located perpendicular to two waveguides for amplifying input light. Two intersections, the gain quenching region and the saturable absorption region, were spatially separated. Input light of 40 mu W results in saturable absorption in one intersection biased at +0.65 V, and 570 mu W causes gain quenching in the other intersection biased at +0.93 V.