Optical interaction with high-field domain nucleation in GaAs

Control of nucleation of high-field domains in GaAs has been reported for essentially one-dimensional samples. The present work reports an optically triggered bimodal form of domain launch in a 3- dimensional sample. The preliminary experiments describing this effect are given, indicating an optically induced time shift in domain launch without a corresponding change in the repetition rate of a domain-generated pulse train. A useful application of this effect to a circulating digital optical memory is described.