All optical logic NAND gate based on two-photon absorption in semiconductor optical amplifiers

Abstract

We propose a new scheme to realize all optical logic NAND operating at high speeds up to 250 Gb/s utilizing the ultrafast phase response during two-photon absorption (TPA) process in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). NAND gate is important because other Boolean logic elements and circuits can be realized using NAND gates as basic building blocks. Rate equations for semiconductor optical amplifiers (for input data signals with high intensity) configured in the form of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer have been solved. The input intensities are high enough so that the two-photon induced phase change is larger than the regular gain induced phase change. The performance of this scheme is analyzed by calculating the quality factor of the resulting data streams. The results show that both AND and NAND operations at 250 Gb/s with good signal to noise ratio are feasible.