All-optical NAND gate using integrated SOA-based Mach–Zehnder interferometer

An all-optical NAND gate using integrated SOA-based Mach–Zehnder interferometer is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. Numerical analysis shows the switching window of the proposed NAND gate, which is synchronous with the dynamic gain experienced by the probe pulses. The effects of the SOA and input data parameters on the switching performance are discussed. The operation of the proposed NAND gate with 10 Gb/s RZ pseudorandom bit sequences is simulated and the results demonstrate its effectiveness. This NAND gate could provide a new possibility for all-optical routing in future all-optical networks.