High-extinction ratio and ultra-compact two-bit comparators based on graphene-plasmonic waveguides

Electro-optical 1-bit and 2-bit comparators based on graphene plasmonic waveguides are proposed. Surface plasmon polaritons are stimulated by radiation of a TM-polarized light with a wavelength of 15 µm and their propagation is controlled by applying electrical signals which represent the binary numbers that need to be compared. The results of comparing two numbers are obtained in the form of light at the output ports. Finite-difference time-domain simulation results show that the minimum extinction ratios (ERs) for 1-bit and 2-bit comparators are 9.69 dB and 6.13 dB, respectively. Also, the 1-bit and 2-bit structures have footprints of ${0.42}\;\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}^2$0.42µm2 and ${0.9}\;\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}^2$0.9µm2, respectively. Our studies show that the optical comparators with these ultra-compact dimensions have not been reported so far. The presented structures benefit from high ER and ultra-compact footprint, which make them suitable for use in optical signal processing and photonic computing.