Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, Volume. 62, Issue 17, 1739002(2025)
Physical Architecture and Application for Optical Computing (Invited)
Optical computing is a novel computational architecture based on the manipulation of photons or optical fields rather than electrons, utilizing light for information encoding, transmitting, and processing. In recent years, optical computing has leveraged independent information dimensions of photons, such as polarization, frequency, and orbital angular momentum, leading to the emergence of numerous novel architectures. Concurrently, the integration of deep-learning-driven structural design has enabled these architectures to demonstrate exceptional performance in tasks including matrix operation and image processing. This paper begins with the physical foundations of optical computing, systematically summarizes and discusses the principal architectures of free-space diffractive and on-chip integrated optical computing. Furthermore, this paper concludes by highlighting the pressing challenges confronting current developments in optical computing and provides perspectives on future trends in this field.
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Shengbing Guo, Wenzhe Liu, Jiajun Wang, Minjia Zheng, Lei Shi. Physical Architecture and Application for Optical Computing (Invited)[J]. Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, 2025, 62(17): 1739002
Category: AI for Optics
Received: May. 21, 2025
Accepted: Jun. 30, 2025
Published Online: Sep. 11, 2025
The Author Email: Jiajun Wang (jiajunwang@fudan.edu.cn), Minjia Zheng (mjzheng@fudan.edu.cn), Lei Shi (lshi@fudan.edu.cn)
CSTR:32186.14.LOP251285