Design and characteristic analysis of an all-optical AND, XOR, and XNOR Y-shaped MIM waveguide for high-speed information processing

Appl Opt. 2022 Feb 10;61(5):1212-1218. doi: 10.1364/AO.451871.

Abstract

All-optical logic gates are exceptionally suited for Boolean ultrahigh-speed operation and logical computing. This study presents a plasmonic model that uses a Y-shaped metal-insulator-metal waveguide structure that realizes the ultrafast all-optical AND, XOR, and XNOR gate operation that is developed at a footprint of 6.6µm×3.4µm with a wavelength of 1.55 µm. This construction relies on the notion of linear interference. The insertion loss and extinction ratio of the model are observed as 1.49 dB and 21.49 dB for AND, 1.03 dB and 18.97 dB for XOR, and 2.06 dB, and 10.92 dB for XNOR, respectively. The transmission efficiency, response time, and speed of the structure also are calculated and are used to improve the performance of any complex circuit in the future. The theoretical analysis of the proposed structure is carried out using the finite-difference time-domain method.