Observations of ultraslow light-based photon logic gates: NAND/OR

Abstract

We report observations of photon logic gate operations using ultraslow light phenomena in a rare-earth doped solid medium. Unlike conventional optical logic gates based on semiconductor optical amplifiers, the present photon logic gate utilizes spin coherence, which is completely free from the optical population constraint and gives potential for ultrahigh speed operations. In addition to the possibility of ultralow power operations, the usage of ultraslow light gives a benefit of all-optical buffer memory functions. Thus, the present demonstration has potential applications to cascadable photon logic devices.