Ultracompact all-optical full-adder and half-adder based on nonlinear plasmonic nanocavities

Ultracompact chip-integrated all-optical half- and full-adders are realized based on signal-light induced plasmonic-nanocavity-modes shift in a planar plasmonic microstructure covered with a nonlinear nanocomposite layer, which can be directly integrated into plasmonic circuits. Tremendous nonlinear enhancement is obtained for the nanocomposite cover layer, attributed to resonant excitation, slow light effect, as well as field enhancement effect provided by the plasmonic nanocavity. The feature size of the device is <15 μm, which is reduced by three orders of magnitude compared with previous reports. The operating threshold power is determined to be 300 μW (corresponding to a threshold intensity of 7.8 MW/cm2), which is reduced by two orders of magnitude compared with previous reports. The intensity contrast ratio between two output logic states, “1” and “0,” is larger than 27 dB, which is among the highest values reported to date. Our work is the first to experimentally realize on-chip half- and full-adders based on nonlinear plasmonic nanocavities having an ultrasmall feature size, ultralow threshold power, and high intensity contrast ratio simultaneously. This work not only provides a platform for the study of nonlinear optics, but also paves a way to realize ultrahigh-speed signal computing chips.