Optically pumped coupled quantum well devices are disclosed. The devices store bits as carrier packets in depressions in the conduction and/or valence band(s) of a single crystal; the band between the depressions is sloped in a common direction which provides unidirectionality. The carrier packets are shifted from depression to depression by optically exciting the carriers and relying on the arrangement of depressions and band slopes; the excitation is conveniently performed by laser illumination. The depressions may be sufficiently small to discretize the energy levels and thereby permit the partitioning of the depressions into groups with each group having depressions of substantially the same energy level structure. The carriers in depressions of one group can then be selectively excited by illumination with a laser or narrow band monochromatic incoherent light source tuned to the energy level structure; this allows multiphase operation of the shifting function.