Simulation of all-optical logic XNOR gate based on quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers with amplified spontaneous emission

The performance of all-optical logic XNOR gate has been simulated. XNOR operation is realized by using Mach-Zehnder interferometer utilizing semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) with quantum-dot (QD) active region. The study is carried out when the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is included. Nonlinear dynamics including carrier heating and spectral hole-burning in the QD-SOA are taken into account together with the rate equations in order to realize the all-optical logic XNOR operation. Results show that the XNOR gate is capable of operating at data speed of 250 Gb/s with high output quality factor (Q -factor). The dependence of the output Q -factor on signals and QD-SOAs parameters is also investigated and discussed.