A NEW STRUCTURE FOR ALL-OPTICAL THREE-INPUT XOR LOGIC GATE BASED ON SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL AMPLIFIER MACH–ZEHNDER INTERFEROMETER

Abstract

In this paper the design and simulation of an all-optical three-input exclusive-OR (XOR) gate based on semiconductor optical amplifier-Mach–Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) configuration is presented. This gate is constructed of three semiconductor optical amplifiers placed at the arms of the two coupled Mach–Zehnder interferometers. The outputs of these two MZIs are combined at the output port to form the final signal. The proposed scheme does not need a continuous wave (CW) laser for its operation and is designed so that the minimum number SOAs are employed. Theoretical analyses and simulations show that this structure acts as an all-optical three-input XOR logic gate which has many applications in optical data communications.