Design of a low-power all-optical NOR gate using photonic crystal quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers

Design and simulation of a novel all-optical logic gate (AOLG) based on photonic crystal quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (PC-QDSOAs) is reported for the first time. For this purpose, a flat-band slow-light QD-based active photonic crystal waveguide (APCW) is designed and employed for implementation of an all-optical NOR gate in a symmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration. Then, the performance of the NOR gate is investigated using a comprehensive nonlinear state space model (NSSM). Simulation results demonstrate that PC-QDSOAs present an interesting platform for realizing ultracompact AOLGs with low power consumption.