Actively phase-controlled coupling between plasmonic waveguides via in-between gain-assisted nanoresonator: nanoscale optical logic gates.

Abstract

The development of nanoscale optical logic gates has attracted immense attention due to increasing demand for ultrahigh-speed and energy-efficient optical computing and data processing, however, suffers from the difficulty in precise control of phase difference of the two optical signals. We propose a novel conception of nanoscale optical logic gates based on actively phase-controlled coupling between two plasmonic waveguides via an in-between gain-assisted nanoresonator. Precise control of phase difference between the two plasmonic signals can be performed by manipulating pumping rate at an appropriate frequency detuning, enabling a high contrast between the output logic states "1" and "0." Without modification of the structural parameters, different logic functions can be provided. This active nanoscale optical logic device is expected to be quite energy-efficient with ideally low energy consumption on the order of 0.1 fJ/bit. Analytical calculations and numerical experiments demonstrate the validity of the proposed concept.