Optical latches based on a selector logic

Optical latches and flip-flops based on an optical selector logic are proposed to realize optical sequencers. The optical selector proposed here consists of a pair of 90° twisted nematic liquid crystal cells, a birefringent crystal plate, and a mask. The optical implementation of the selector logic can be realized by the beam selections through the optical selector unit via a polarization switch, and then the parallel computation can be performed by cascading the optical selector units. An optical SR latch and an optical D flip-flop are demonstrated based on the optical selector logic, and an optical binary counter is designed by using the optical flip-flops.