Non-Volatile Reconfigurable Compact Photonic Logic Gates Based on Phase-Change Materials

Photonic logic gates have important applications in fast data processing and optical communication. This study aims to design a series of ultra-compact non-volatile and reprogrammable photonic logic gates based on the Sb₂Se₃ phase-change material. A direct binary search algorithm was adopted for the design, and four types of photonic logic gates (OR, NOT, AND, and XOR) are created using silicon-on-insulator technology. The proposed structures had very small sizes of 2.4 μm × 2.4 μm. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulation results show that, in the C-band near 1550 nm, the OR, NOT, AND, and XOR gates exhibit good logical contrast of 7.64, 6.1, 3.3, and 18.92 dB, respectively. This series of photonic logic gates can be applied in optoelectronic fusion chip solutions and 6G communication systems.