Design of silicon-based two-dimensional photonic integrated circuits: XOR gate

Abstract

In this work the authors investigate the design of an XOR gate based on two-dimensionalsilicon photonic crystals. The XOR gate is formed by two dual-ring resonators placed between two waveguides; each secondary waveguide is united in a vertical waveguide, through a specific Y branch, where the waveguide contains the main output. We use 45° ring resonators, before the output, to improve gate efficiency. The optical properties and the distribution field Ezfor the proposed gate have been calculated by the finite difference time domain technique. The response time of our logic 'XOR' gate is < 7.2 ps. This photonic gate is of great interest for several applications such as in electronics, in data processing and also in cryptography. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2013.