Patent ID: 7657188

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: a) receiving a first optical signal at a first pathway defined in a photonic bandgap (PBG) element, the PBG element defined by periodic structures, and the first pathway defined by an absence of structures in the PBG element; b) receiving a second optical signal at a second pathway defined in the PBG element, the second pathway defined by an absence of structures in the PBG element; c) phase-modulating the first optical signal to contain first data with a first phase modulator mounted in the first pathway of the PBG element; d) phase-modulating the second optical signal to contain second data with a second phase modulator mounted in the second pathway of the PBG element; e) guiding the phase-modulated first optical signal via the first pathway to an interference area defined in the PBG element; f) guiding the phase-modulated second optical signal via the second pathway to the interference area; g) combining the phase-modulated first optical signal with the phase-modulated second optical signal in the interference area to generate an optical interference signal that is amplitude-modulated based on the phase modulation of the first optical signal and the second optical signal; h) nonlinearly discriminating the optical interference signal with a nonlinear element situated in the PBG element and optically positioned between an output of the interference area and an input to an output pathway defined in the PBG element to produce an optical output signal having a digital logic state representing third data resulting from a logic operation on the first data and second data by performance of the steps (g) and (h); i) guiding the optical output signal to an output of the PBG element via the output pathway; and j) outputting the optical output signal from the PBG element.