ALL-OPTICAL LOGIC GATES BASED ON SPATIAL-SOLITON INTERACTIONS IN OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SPECTRAL REGION

Abstract

New designs of all-optical logic gates based on spatial-soliton interactions in optical communication spectral regions were proposed. The proposed structures are composed of local nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) waveguide structures with multi-input ports and two nonlinear output ports. They can be used to design various all-optical logic gates. The nonlinear MZI waveguide structure with local nonlinear waveguides functions like a phase shifter. It employs angular deflection of spatial solitons controlled by the phase modulation created in the local nonlinear MZI. The light-induced index changes in the local nonlinear MZI waveguide structures break the symmetry of structure and make the output signal beam propagate through different nonlinear output waveguides. By properly choosing the input control power, the spatial solitons will be switched to different output ports. The numerical results show that the proposed local nonlinear MZI waveguide structures could really function as all-optical logic gates in the optical communication spectral region.