Reconfigurable All-Optical Logic Gates (AND, NOR, NOT, OR) With Quantum-Dot Semiconductor Optical Amplifier and Optical Filter

All-optical logic gates are indispensable modules for executing exclusively by means of light fundamental Boolean operations. Despite intense research in this field, most efforts have not treated these gates in a joint design and operating manner. This causes waste of hardware resources and lack of versatility. In this paper, we theoretically investigate, assess and demonstrate the feasibility of implementing all-optically multiple logic gates (AND, NOR, OR, NOT) at 160 Gb/s by means of a single quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifier (QD-SOA) and a concatenated optical filter. We follow a methodical approach and conduct a thorough numerical study to derive rules for the selection of the critical operating parameters so that appropriate performance criteria defined for each gate are made acceptable. The intersection of the permissible bounds allows us to specify a combination of parameters' values which is the same for all gates and guarantees the execution of the corresponding Boolean functions with logically correct and high quality outcome. The proposed scheme can be reconfigured to realize the different gates at 160 Gb/s without changes in its basic setup or driving conditions. This is achieved simply by detuning the optical filter according to the design guidelines of each gate.