Communication: toward ultrafast, reconfigurable logic in the nanoscale

We propose and illustrate numerically a class of nanoscale, ultrafast logic gates with the further advantage of reconfigurability. Underlying the operation of the gates and their versatility is the concept of polarization control of the electromagnetic energy propagating via metal nanoparticle arrays. Specifically, a set of different logic gates is shown to obtain from a single metal nanoparticle junction by modification of the polarization properties of the input light sources. Implications and extensions of the gates are discussed.