All-optical half adder using semiconductor optical amplifier based devices

An all-optical half adder using semiconductor optical amplifier based devices is suggested and demonstrated-at 10 Gbit/s. Boolean AB and AB out of two semiconductor optical amplifiers have been obtained and combined to achieve an all-optical XOR gate, which is logic SUM. Also, an all-optical XPM wavelength converter has been utilized to obtain an all-optical AND gate, which is logic CARRY. Logic SUM and CARRY are simultaneously realized. No additional input beam such as clock signal or continuous wave light other than input signals A and B is used in this new design, which is required in many other all-optical logic gates. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.