School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Nanoscale. 2018 Mar 1;10(9):4523-4527. doi: 10.1039/c7nr08871j.
Optical logic gates are important elements in optical computing and optical circuits. However, the footprints of the present optical logic gates are still on the micrometer scale. Further miniaturization of the logic gates to nanometer scale remains challenging. Here we propose, and demonstrate experimentally, subwavelength all-optical logic gates based on single-element optical slot nanoantennas. By employing a spin-encoded scheme, we achieve OR, AND, NOT, NAND and NOR logic gates via an L-shaped optical slot nanoantenna with a footprint of 300 nm by 300 nm, and a XNOR logic gate via a rectangle optical slot nanoantenna with a footprint of 220 nm by 60 nm. The SPP launching and logic operation via mode coupling instead of path interference are integrated together at a single-element nanoantenna, which considerably shrinks the dimensions of the device. The experimental results show the potential of the single optical slot nanoantenna in subwavelength all-optical logic computing and nanophotonic information processing.
光逻辑门是光学计算和光学电路中的重要元件。然而，目前的光逻辑门的尺寸仍然在微米尺度上。进一步将逻辑门缩小到纳米尺度仍然具有挑战性。在这里，我们提出并通过实验演示了基于单个元素光槽纳米天线的亚波长全光逻辑门。通过采用自旋编码方案，我们利用一个 300nm 乘 300nm 的 L 形光槽纳米天线实现了 OR、AND、NOT、NAND 和 NOR 逻辑门，利用一个 220nm 乘 60nm 的矩形光槽纳米天线实现了 XNOR 逻辑门。通过模式耦合而不是路径干扰实现的 SPP 激发和逻辑操作集成在单个纳米天线中，这大大缩小了器件的尺寸。实验结果表明，单个光槽纳米天线在亚波长全光逻辑计算和纳米光子信息处理方面具有潜力。
