Abstract

Co-authors: Jason S. Pelc (Hewlett-Packard Laboratories), Raymond G. Beausoleil (Hewlett-Packard Laboratories), Nikolas Tezak (Stanford University), Ryan Hamerly (Stanford University), Hideo Mabuchi (Stanford University)

This talk will describe work at HP Labs to design and build photonic circuits on semiconductor platforms that use Kerr, carrier-based and thermal nonlinearities to perform all-optical logic. We have developed a semi-classical model to simulate quantum noise and spontaneous switching in circuits containing hundreds of components. With this model we can address basic questions such as the minimum switching energy needed to avoid errors, or whether the circuits have adequate digital signal restoration. Recently, we have been working to reduce the complexity and improve tolerance to fabrication variations in the circuit designs. I will also summarize our recent experimental efforts on all-optical logic devices.