Light-Effect Transistor (LET) with Multiple Independent Gating Controls for Optical Logic Gates and Optical Amplification

Modern electronics are developing electronic-optical integrated circuits, while their electronic backbone, e.g., field-effect transistors (FETs), remains the same. However, further FET down scaling is facing physical and technical challenges. A light-effect transistor (LET) offers electronic-optical hybridization at the component level, which can continue Moore's law to the quantum region without requiring a FET's fabrication complexity, e.g., physical gate and doping, by employing optical gating and photoconductivity. Multiple independent gates are therefore readily realized to achieve unique functionalities without increasing chip space. Here we report LET device characteristics and novel digital and analog applications, such as optical logic gates and optical amplification. Prototype CdSe-nanowire-based LETs show output and transfer characteristics resembling advanced FETs, e.g., on/off ratios up to boolean AND similar to 1.0 x 106 with a source-drain voltage of similar to 1.43 V, gate-power of similar to 260 nW, and a subthreshold swing of similar to 0.3 nW/decade (excluding losses). Our work offers new electronic-optical integration strategies and electronic and optical computing approaches.