All-optical multiple logic gates with XOR, NOR, OR, and NAND functions using parallel SOA-MZI structures: theory and experiment

Abstract

The authors have proposed, simulated, and experimentally demonstrated all-optical multiple logic gates using two parallel semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structures that enable simultaneous operations of various logic functions of XOR, NOR, OR, and NAND. The proposed scheme, which is optimized by adjusting the optical gain and phase differences in SOA-MZI structures with creative and systematic method, has great merits to achieve the reshaped output pulses with high extinction ratio and enable the high-speed operation at over 10 Gb/s through performance enhancement of SOAs. Its validity is confirmed through simulation and experiments at 2.5 and 10 Gb/s, respectively.