all optical flip flop (photonics) (AOFF)

In addition to communication technology with light transmissionon optical fibers and the analog optical components required for this, photonics is also concerned with the development of digital optical logic circuits such as the All Optical Flip Flop (AOFF).

An AOFF is an all-optical bistable flip-flop that is functionally equivalent to the electrical flip-flop. In the optical flip-flop, a light pulse switches the flip-flop from one stable state to a second. Once reached, the state is maintained until another light pulse switches the flip-flop back to the first stable state. Such AOFFs can then be used to build optical RAMs, provided the optical technology can be implemented in optical integrated circuits( OIC).