Non-Volatile Reconfigurable Compact Photonic Logic Gates Based on Phase-Change Materials

Yuqing Zhang; Zheng Peng; Zhicheng Wang; Yilu Wu; Yuqi Hu; Jiagui Wu; Junbo Yang

doi:10.3390/nano13081375

Non-Volatile Reconfigurable Compact Photonic Logic Gates Based on Phase-Change Materials

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Apr 15;13(8):1375. doi: 10.3390/nano13081375.

Authors

Yuqing Zhang^{1

2}, Zheng Peng^{1

2}, Zhicheng Wang^{1

2}, Yilu Wu¹, Yuqi Hu¹, Jiagui Wu³, Junbo Yang²

Affiliations

¹ College of Artificial Intelligence, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
² Center of Material Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China.
³ School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.

Abstract

Photonic logic gates have important applications in fast data processing and optical communication. This study aims to design a series of ultra-compact non-volatile and reprogrammable photonic logic gates based on the Sb₂Se₃ phase-change material. A direct binary search algorithm was adopted for the design, and four types of photonic logic gates (OR, NOT, AND, and XOR) are created using silicon-on-insulator technology. The proposed structures had very small sizes of 2.4 μm × 2.4 μm. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulation results show that, in the C-band near 1550 nm, the OR, NOT, AND, and XOR gates exhibit good logical contrast of 7.64, 6.1, 3.3, and 18.92 dB, respectively. This series of photonic logic gates can be applied in optoelectronic fusion chip solutions and 6G communication systems.

Keywords: non-volatility; phase-change material; photonic logic gates; reconfigurability.

Abstract

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