Photoelectric reading of information recorded in a MNOS structure

Two methods were developed for reading the potential relief obtained on pulse illumination of a metal-silicon nitride-silicon dioxide-silicon (MNOS) structure. The methods used were the measurement of the photoemf and of the photocurrent. The photocurrent method had several important advantages such as the absence of the dependence of the photocurrent signal on the charge state of neighboring parts of the structure and a higher (by more than two orders of magnitude) clock frequency in the information reading process. In both methods the spatial resolution was at least 10 μ. The energy characteristics obtained in reading at two wavelengths (0.9 and 0.63 μ) were reported.