Electro-optic directed logic circuit based on microring resonators for XOR/XNOR operations

Design of multifunctional all-optical logic gates based on photonic crystal waveguides

The explosive development of the big data era has driven the rapid growth of silicon photonics, and logic operators based on photonic circuits have also been intensively investigated. Photonic integrated logic operators possess a high degree of design freedom and novel prospects, and they are regarded as promising platforms for future signaling and data processing. In this work, considering all-optical logic operation with lower power consumption and a smaller device footprint, multifunctional all-optical logic gates based on silicon photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides and phase-encoded light beams are proposed and applied to realize several logic operators, including XNOR, XOR, NOR, AND gates as well as a half adder and half subtractor. The initial phases (π and 0) of incident light represent the input digital states (1 and 0), and the logic operation results are determined by the output light intensity. Also, simulations are carried out to verify the proposed concept and to investigate the rise time, fall time, and cross talk of the devices. Theoretically, the bit rate for the proposed device can reach 1.25 Tb/s, and the proposed structures have the potential to be extremely compact due to PhC waveguides.

Recent advances in integrated optical directed logic operations for high performance optical computing: a review

Optical directed logic (DL) is a novel logic operation scheme that employs electrical signals as operands to control the working states of optical switches to perform the logic functions. This review first provides an overview of the concept and working principle of DL. The developing trends of DL computing are then discussed in detail, including the fundamental optical DL gates, combinational optical DL operations, reconfigurable logic computing, low power optical logic computing, and programmable photonic network. The concluding remarks provide an outlook on the DL future development and its impacts in optical computing.

Automated logic synthesis for electro-optic logic-based integrated optical computing

Integrated optical computing attracts increasing interest recently as Moore's law approaches the physical limitation. Among all the approaches of integrated optical computing, directed logic that takes the full advantage of integrated photonics and electronics has received lots of investigation since its first introduction in 2007. Meanwhile, as integrated photonics matures, it has become critical to develop automated methods for synthesizing optical devices for large-scale optical designs. In this paper, we propose a general electro-optic (EO) logic in a higher level to explore its potential in integrated computing. Compared to the directed logic, the EO logic leads to a briefer design with shorter optical paths and fewer components. Then a comprehensive gate library based on EO logic is summarized. At last, an And-Inverter Graphs (AIGs) based automated logic synthesis algorithm is described as an example to implement the EO logic, which offers an instruction for the design automation of high-speed integrated optical computing circuits.

Silicon microdisk-based full adders for optical computing

Due to the projected saturation of Moore's law, as well as the drastically increasing trend of bandwidth with lower power consumption, silicon photonics has emerged as one of the most promising alternatives that has attracted a lasting interest due to the accessibility and maturity of ultra-compact passive and active integrated photonic components. In this Letter, we demonstrate a ripple-carry electro-optic 2-bit full adder using microdisks, which replaces the core part of an electrical full adder by optical counterparts and uses light to carry signals from one bit to the next with high bandwidth and low power consumption per bit. All control signals of the operands are applied simultaneously within each clock cycle. Thus, the severe latency issue that accumulates as the size of the full adder increases can be circumvented, allowing for an improvement in computing speed and a reduction in power consumption. This approach paves the way for future high-speed optical computing systems in the post-Moore's law era.

Ultracompact CMOS-compatible optical logic using carrier depletion in microdisk resonators

We present a CMOS-compatible optoelectronic directed logic architecture that achieves high computational throughput (number of operations per second per unit area) by its ultracompact form factor. High speed-to-power performance is also achieved, by the low capacitance and high junction-to-mode overlap of low-radii SOI vertical pn junction microdisk switches. By using wavelength-division multiplexing and two electrical control signals per disk, each switch performs (N)OR, (N)AND, and X(N)OR operations simultaneously. Connecting multiple switches together, we demonstrate higher-order scalability in five fundamental N-bit logic circuits: AND/OR gates, adders, comparators, encoders, and decoders. To the best of our knowledge, these circuits achieve the lowest footprint of silicon-based multigigabit-per-second optical logic devices in literature.

Active Control of Charge Density Waves at Degenerate Semiconductor Interfaces

We present an optoelectronic switch for functional plasmonic circuits based on active control of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) at degenerate PN+-junction interfaces. Self-consistent multi-physics simulations of the electromagnetic, thermal and IV characteristics of the device have been performed. The lattice matched Indium Gallium Arsenide (In0.53Ga0.47As) is identified as a better semiconductor material compared to Si for the practical implementation of the proposed optoelectronic switch providing higher optical confinement, reduced size and faster operation. The optimal device is shown to operate at signal modulation surpassing -100 dB, responsivity in excess of -600 dB·V-1 and switching rates up to 50 GHz, thus potentially providing a new pathway toward bridging the gap between electronic and photonic devices.

Experimental demonstration of a reconfigurable electro-optic directed logic circuit using cascaded carrier-injection micro-ring resonators

We experimentally demonstrate a reconfigurable electro-optic directed logic circuit which can perform any combinatorial logic operation using cascaded carrier-injection micro-ring resonators (MRRs), and the logic circuit is fabricated on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate with the standard commercial Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication process. PIN diodes embedded around MRRs are employed to achieve the carrier injection modulation. The operands are represented by electrical signals, which are applied to the corresponding MRRs to control their switching states. The operation result is directed to the output port in the form of light. For proof of principle, several logic operations of three-operand with the operation speed of 100 Mbps are demonstrated successfully.

All-optical tunable microfiber knot resonator with graphene-assisted sandwich structure

We demonstrate an all-optical tunable microfiber knot resonator (MFKR) by direct light-graphene interaction using external vertical incidence pump laser. The 1530 nm CW pump source is employed to irradiate the sample, which can achieve the performance modulation of MFKR including transmission loss, extinction ratio, and resonant wavelength by the saturable absorption, photo-thermal, and optical Kerr effects, respectively. Compared with the MFKR with only the bottom graphene film, the tunable ranges of transmission loss and extinction ratio are increased by 69 and 125 times, respectively, which can induce a remarkable amplitude tuning. The resonant wavelength of MFKR occurs a red-shift under the irradiation of the pump light, and the red-shift range can exceed one free spectral range (FSR), which means the resonant wavelength could be tuned in the full wavelength range of the transparent window of optical fiber. It is promising for the device to be applied as an all-optical modulator, tunable optical filter, etc.

Wavelet analysis and HHG in nanorings: their applications in logic gates and memory mass devices

We study the application of one nanoring driven by a laser field in different states of polarization in logic circuits. In particular we show that assigning Boolean values to different states of the incident laser field and to the emitted signals, we can create logic gates such as OR, XOR and AND. We also show the possibility of making logic circuits such as half-adder and full-adder using one and two nanorings respectively. Using two nanorings we made the Toffoli gate. Finally we use the final angular momentum acquired by the electron to store information and hence show the possibility of using an array of nanorings as a mass memory device.

Electro-optic directed XOR logic circuits based on parallel-cascaded micro-ring resonators

We report an electro-optic photonic integrated circuit which can perform the exclusive (XOR) logic operation based on two silicon parallel-cascaded microring resonators (MRRs) fabricated on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. PIN diodes embedded around MRRs are employed to achieve the carrier injection modulation. Two electrical pulse sequences regarded as two operands of operations are applied to PIN diodes to modulate two MRRs through the free carrier dispersion effect. The final operation result of two operands is output at the Output port in the form of light. The scattering matrix method is employed to establish numerical model of the device, and numerical simulator SG-framework is used to simulate the electrical characteristics of the PIN diodes. XOR operation with the speed of 100Mbps is demonstrated successfully.

Efficient modulation of 1.55 μm radiation with gated graphene on a silicon microring resonator

The gate-controllability of the Fermi-edge onset of interband absorption in graphene can be utilized to modulate near-infrared radiation in the telecommunication band. However, a high modulation efficiency has not been demonstrated to date, because of the small amount of light absorption in graphene. Here, we demonstrate a ∼ 40% amplitude modulation of 1.55 μm radiation with gated single-layer graphene that is coupled with a silicon microring resonator. Both the quality factor and resonance wavelength of the silicon microring resonator were strongly modulated through gate tuning of the Fermi level in graphene. These results promise an efficient electro-optic modulator, ideal for applications in large-scale on-chip optical interconnects that are compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology.

Electro-optical graphene plasmonic logic gates

The versatile control of graphene's plasmonic modes via an external gate-voltage inspires us to design efficient electro-optical graphene plasmonic logic gates at the midinfrared wavelengths. We show that these devices are superior to the conventional optical logic gates because the former possess cut-off states and interferometric effects. Moreover, the designed six basic logic gates (i.e., NOR/AND, NAND/OR, XNOR/XOR) achieved not only ultracompact size lengths of less than λ/28 with respect to the operating wavelength of 10 μm, but also a minimum extinction ratio as high as 15 dB. These graphene plasmonic logic gates are potential building blocks for future nanoscale midinfrared photonic integrated circuits.

XOR and XNOR operations at 12.5 Gb/s using cascaded carrier-depletion microring resonators

We report the implementation of the XOR and XNOR logical operations using an electro-optic circuit, which is fabricated by CMOS-compatible process in the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The circuit consists of two cascaded add-drop microring resonators (MRRs), which are modulated through electric-field-induced carrier depletion in reverse biased pn junctions embedded in the ring waveguides. The resonance wavelength mismatch between the two nominally identical MRRs caused by fabrication errors is compensated by thermal tuning. Simultaneous bitwise XOR and XNOR operations of the two electrical modulating signals at the speed of 12.5 Gb/s are demonstrated. And 20 Gb/s XOR operation at one output port of the circuit is achieved. We explain the phenomena that one half of the resonance regions of the device are much more sensitive to the round-trip phase shift in the ring waveguides than the other half resonance regions. Characteristic graphs with logarithmic phase coordinate are proposed to analyze the sensitivity of the demonstrated circuit, as well as several typical integrated optical structures. It is found that our circuit with arbitrary chosen parameters has similar sensitivity to MRRs under the critical coupling.

Optical quasi logic gates based on polarization-dependent four-wave mixing in subwavelength metallic waveguides

All-optical quasi logic gates are demonstrated by means of polarization-dependent four-wave mixing (FWM) in metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguides filled with a Kerr nonlinear medium. By using finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) methods, we perform a quantitative comparison of the FWM efficiency associated with different pump polarization states. By manipulating the core thickness and the polarization properties of the pump and signals, all-optical NOT, NAND, NOR, and NXOR logical functions are obtained.

Demonstration of reconfigurable electro-optical logic with silicon photonic integrated circuits

We demonstrate a scalable and reconfigurable optical directed-logic architecture consisting of a regular array of integrated optical switches based on microring resonators. The switches are controlled by electrical input logic signals through embedded p-i-n junctions. The circuit can be reconfigured to perform any combinational logic operation by thermally tuning the operation modes of the switches. Here we show experimentally a directed logic circuit based on a 2×2 array of switches. The circuit is reconfigured to perform arbitrary two-input logic functions.