Laser and LED Arrays for Optical Computing

1This proposal is to develop an architecture for neural optical computing using a high-density array of surface emitting lasers (SEL), fabricated with InGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells (MQW) sandwiched between two distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) of GaAs/AlAs. The MQW and DBR will be fabricated on GaAs substrate in tandem by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The two-dimensional array of the MQW lasers will lase perpendicular to the surface of the substrate and the emitted power from each laser can be controlled independently and coherently. The phase I objective is to design the array layout, the on-chip bias/address circuit and the control processor to operate the array, followed by a demonstration of a small test array. The resultant SEL array will by used for projecting modulated images with high resolution and high dynamic range thus making it ideally suited for high density neural optical computing and optical signal processing applications.