Photonic crystal based design of a 3-bit all-optical parity checker and generator for all-optical computing

Abstract

Photonic crystal based designs of 3-bit even parity checker and generator circuits are proposed in this paper. These circuits are realized for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, on a photonic crystal platform with the aim of achieving power efficient, simple, and compact devices suitable for photonic integrated circuits. The proposed structures are realized using all-optical reconfigurable XOR/NOT gates with compact dimensions, low power consumption, and high contrast ratios. The operation is based on a linear interference effect leading to reduced power consumptions feasible for operation in the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm. The various performance metrics such as contrast ratio, response time, and data rate are analyzed based on simulations using the finite difference time domain technique. All structures achieve small footprints and low response times with operation speeds up to 1 Tbps. The designs are based purely on silicon material, which enables ease of fabrication and offers easy compatibility with existing opto-electronic systems as well as with upcoming all-optical systems. The above circuits have wide applications in optical computing, error correction, detection, and optical cryptography.