Ultrafast All-Optical Half Adder Using Quantum-Dot Semiconductor Optical Amplifier-Based Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Interferometric devices have drawn a great interest in all-optical signal processing for their high-speed photonic activity. Quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD-SOA)-based gate has added a new momentum in this field to perform all-optical logic and algebraic operations. In this paper, a new and alternative scheme for all-optical half adder using two QD-SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometers is theoretically investigated and demonstrated. The proposed scheme is driven by the pair of input data streams for one switch between which the Boolean xor function is to be executed to produce sum-bit. Then the output of the first switch and one of the input data are utilized to drive the second switch to produce carry-bit. The impact of the peak data power as well as of the QD-SOAs current density, small signal gain, and QD-SOAs length on the ER and Q-factor of the switching outcome are explored and assessed by means of numerical simulation. The operation of the system is demonstrated with 160 Gbit/s.