Design of transmission gate using electro-optic effect of lithium niobate based Mach–Zehnder interferometers

Optical integrated circuits for computing and information processing could overcome the speed limitations of semiconductor electronics. However, in photonics, very few fundamental building blocks equivalent to those used in multi-functional electronic circuits exist. In this paper, transmission gate based on electro-optic effect inside lithium niobate based Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZI) is described. Transmission gates are typically used as building blocks for logic circuitry in integrated circuit design. It is a combination of NMOS and PMOS transistors. Lithium niobate based MZI has a phenomenal competence to switching optical signal to a desired output port. Here, proposed device is elucidated with the help of mathematical description and thereafter simulation using MATLAB. 2 \(\times \) 1 multiplexer is also designed using proposed transmission gate. The study is verified using beam propagation method.