Photonic logic by linear unidirectional interference

A novel concept of unidirectional optical interference is presented, inspired by a non-Hermitian formulation of quantum mechanics via Maxwell-Schrodinger equation analogy. This model is employed for the design of photonic devices controlling strong fields by weak ones, suitable for large-scale optical logic. Implementations of very low-power photonic logic based on linear unidirectional optical gratings are presented. A linear photonic inverter is demonstrated and its performance is optimized by numerical calculations. The simulations are performed by full-vectorial beam propagation methods showing high signal to noise ratios. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America