Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, Volume. 62, Issue 17, 1739001(2025)

Roadmap of Intelligent Photonics (Invited)

Bowen Bai1, Liangcai Cao12、*, Hongwei Chen11、*, Jianji Dong6、*, Shiyin Du10, Lu Fang11、*, Fu Feng21, Tingzhao Fu9, Yunhui Gao12, Xingxing Guo16, Minglie Hu15、*, Yueqiang Hu7、*, Zhengqi Huang4, Yanan Han16, Dewang Huo21, Hao Hao10, Tian Jiang10、*, Ming Li2,19,20、*, Jie Lin3、*, Siteng Li18, Liangye Li5,17, Runmin Liu15, Xiangyan Meng2,19,20, Tao Peng9, Guohai Situ14,18、*, Nuannuan Shi2,19,20, Qizhen Sun5、*, Jinyue Su7, Xingjun Wang1、*, Shuiying Xiang16、*, Danlin Xu12, Zhihao Xu11, Shibo Xu6, Xiaocong Yuan13,21、*, Qipeng Yang1, Yunhua Yao4, Shian Zhang4、*, Tiankuang Zhou11, Shixiong Zhang5,8, and Ziyang Zhang21
Author Affiliations
  • 1State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communications System and Networks, School of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 2State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China
  • 3Center of Ultra-precision Optoelectronic Instrument, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang , China
  • 4State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, School of Physics and Electronic Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
  • 5School of Optical and Electronics Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei , China
  • 6Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei , China
  • 7State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, Hunan , China
  • 8School of Intelligent Manufacturing, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, Hubei , China
  • 9College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, Hunan , China
  • 10Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, Hunan , China
  • 11Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • 12State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • 13Nanophotonics Research Centre, Institute of Microscale Optoelectronics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong , China
  • 14Shanghai Institute of Laser Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200233, China
  • 15Ultrafast Laser Laboratory & Key Laboratory of Opto-Electronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Precision Instruments and Opto-Electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
  • 16State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, Shaanxi , China
  • 17School of Information Mechanics and Sensing Engineering, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071,Shaanxi , China
  • 18Key Laboratory of Space Laser Communication and Detection Technology, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
  • 19Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 20School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 21Zhejiang Lab , Research Center for Humanoid Sensing, Hangzhou 311100, Zhejiang , China
  • show less

    With the profound integration of artificial intelligence and photonics technologies, intelligent photonics is evolving into a disruptive technology that looks poised to revolutionize industries and everyday life. The development of intelligent photonics finds applications in diverse fields, including biomedicine, autonomous driving, and virtual and augmented reality. Artificial intelligence (AI) is fueling a new paradigm of photonics research, providing efficient avenues for optimizing photonics design, advancing optical systems and analyzing optical information. Enabled by the maturity of deep learning, silicon-based optoelectronics, optical materials, and quantum information, photonic computing holds great potential to address the challenges faced by Moore's law and the bottlenecks of the von Neumann architecture. Future implementations of photonic computing may meet the demands for high-performance computing in the digital infrastructure of the information era, such as those posed by 5G, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. In this study, we summarize recent advances in photonic computing, including on-chip integrated optical neural networks based on micro-ring resonators, multimode interferometers, nanobeam resonators, and subwavelength diffractive units and integration of training and computation. We also highlight the progresses in diffractive neural networks enabled by diffractive optical elements and intelligent metasurfaces, as well as the developments in photonic spiking neural networks, reservoir computing, quantum photonic computing, and large-scale optoelectronic computing chips. In terms of computational optics, we review the advances across a broad range of areas, including computational imaging, microscopy, display, fiber-optic sensing, and laser technologies.

    Keywords
    Tools

    Get Citation

    Copy Citation Text

    Bowen Bai, Liangcai Cao, Hongwei Chen, Jianji Dong, Shiyin Du, Lu Fang, Fu Feng, Tingzhao Fu, Yunhui Gao, Xingxing Guo, Minglie Hu, Yueqiang Hu, Zhengqi Huang, Yanan Han, Dewang Huo, Hao Hao, Tian Jiang, Ming Li, Jie Lin, Siteng Li, Liangye Li, Runmin Liu, Xiangyan Meng, Tao Peng, Guohai Situ, Nuannuan Shi, Qizhen Sun, Jinyue Su, Xingjun Wang, Shuiying Xiang, Danlin Xu, Zhihao Xu, Shibo Xu, Xiaocong Yuan, Qipeng Yang, Yunhua Yao, Shian Zhang, Tiankuang Zhou, Shixiong Zhang, Ziyang Zhang. Roadmap of Intelligent Photonics (Invited)[J]. Laser & Optoelectronics Progress, 2025, 62(17): 1739001

    Download Citation

    EndNote(RIS)BibTexPlain Text
    Save article for my favorites
    Paper Information

    Category: AI for Optics

    Received: Jun. 24, 2025

    Accepted: Aug. 23, 2025

    Published Online: Sep. 25, 2025

    The Author Email: Liangcai Cao (clc@tsinghua.edu.cn), Hongwei Chen (chenhw@tsinghua.edu.cn), Jianji Dong (jjdong@hust.edu.cn), Lu Fang (fanglu@tsinghua.edu.cn), Minglie Hu (huminglie@tju.edu.cn), Yueqiang Hu (huyq@hnu.edu.cn), Tian Jiang (tjiang@nudt.edu.cn), Ming Li (ml@semi.ac.cn), Jie Lin (linjie@hit.edu.cn), Guohai Situ (ghsitu@siom.ac.cn), Qizhen Sun (qzsun@mail.hust.edu.cn), Xingjun Wang (xjwang@pku.edu.cn), Shuiying Xiang (syxiang@xidian.edu.cn), Xiaocong Yuan (xcyuan@zhejianglab.com), Shian Zhang (sazhang@phy.ecnu.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.3788/LOP251552

    CSTR:32186.14.LOP251552

    Topics