Electro-optical logic operations with two-electrode distributed feedback injection lasers

Abstract

A complete set of and, or, nand, nor, and invert logic gates is demonstrated using a distributed feedback (DFB) injection laser with two-electrode current control. The logic operation is based on the high-speed two-wavelength switching using the two-mode degeneracy property of DFB lasers that we have demonstrated recently. A 400-ps switching time, limited by the speed of the electrical signal, was observed. The device is compatible with future photonic integrated circuit and wide-band optical fiber transmission technologies.