Controlled optical photonic crystal AND gate using nematic liquid crystal layers

Abstract

Two optical AND gates built in 2D photonic crystal (PhC) platform have been proposed and numerically simulated using 2D finite element method (FEM). The suggested logic gates consist of five PhC waveguides and silicon annular ring resonator filled by nematic liquid crystal (NLC) of type E7. The first proposed AND gate can handle two inputs and support two operating wavelengths, λ = 1.5 and 1.55 µm. However, the second proposed AND gate can handle three inputs at λ = 1.5 µm. The reported logic gates offer high and low transmission levels with a threshold of 0.5 and an ultra-high bit rate of not less than 0.3 Tbits/s. Further, the suggested AND gates operation can be switched off by using the NLC layer.