  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. a
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 ~1.0x10^6 with a source-drain voltage of ~1.43 V, gate-power of
~260 nW, and subthreshold swing of ~0.3 nW/decade (excluding losses). Our work
offers new electronic-optical integration strategies and electronic and optical
computing approaches.
