Ternary logic in the optical controlled-SWAP gate based on Laguerre-Gaussian modes of light

Abstract

The need set by a computational industry to increase processing power, while simultaneously reducing the energy consumption of data centers, became a challenge for modern computational systems. In this work, we propose an optical communication solution, that could serve as a building block for future computing systems, due to its versatility. The solution arises from Landauer’s principle and utilizes reversible logic, manifested as an optical logical gate with structured light, here represented as Laguerre-Gaussian modes. We introduced a phase-shift-based encoding technique and incorporated multi-valued logic in the form of a ternary numeral system to determine the similarity between two images through the free space communication protocol.