Ultracompact linear on-chip silicon optical logic gates with phase insensitivity

All-optical integrated circuits for computing and information processing have been pursued for decades as a potential strategy to overcome the speed limitations intrinsic to electronics. However, feasible on-chip integrated logic units and devices still have been limited by their size, quality, scalability, and reliability. Here we analyse all-passive on-chip optical AND and NAND logic gates made from a directional emitting cavity connecting two ultrasmall photoniccrystal heterojunction diodes. The measured transmission spectra show more than 10 dB contrast of the logic transport with a high phase tolerance, agreeing well with numerical simulations. The building of linear, passive, and ultracompact silicon optical logic gates might pave the way to construct novel nanophotonic on-chip processor architectures for future optical computing technologies. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2013