Optical computing

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Optical or photonic computing uses

photons produced by lasers or diodes for
computation. For decades, photons have
promised to allow a higher bandwidth than
the electrons used in conventional
computers.

Most research projects focus on replacing

current computer components with optical
equivalents, resulting in an optical digital
computer system processing binary data.
This approach appears to offer the best
short-term prospects for commercial
optical computing, since optical
components could be integrated into
traditional computers to produce an
optical-electronic hybrid. However,
optoelectronic devices lose 30% of their
energy converting electronic energy into
photons and back; this conversion also
slows the transmission of messages. All-
optical computers eliminate the need for
optical-electrical-optical (OEO)
conversions, thus lessening the need for
electrical power.[1]
Application-specific devices, such as
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical
correlators, have been designed to use the
principles of optical computing.
Correlators can be used, for example, to
detect and track objects,[2] and to classify
serial time-domain optical data.[3]

Optical components for

binary digital computer
The fundamental building block of modern
electronic computers is the transistor. To
replace electronic components with
optical ones, an equivalent optical
transistor is required. This is achieved
using materials with a non-linear refractive
index. In particular, materials exist[4] where
the intensity of incoming light affects the
intensity of the light transmitted through
the material in a similar manner to the
current response of a bipolar transistor.
Such an 'optical transistor'[5][6] can be used
to create optical logic gates,[6] which in
turn are assembled into the higher level
components of the computer's CPU.
These will be nonlinear optical crystals
used to manipulate light beams into
controlling other light beams.

Controversy
There are disagreements between
researchers about the future capabilities
of optical computers: will they be able to
compete with semiconductor-based
electronic computers on speed, power
consumption, cost, and size? Critics note
that[7] real-world logic systems require
"logic-level restoration, cascadability, fan-
out and input–output isolation", all of
which are currently provided by electronic
transistors at low cost, low power, and
high speed. For optical logic to be
competitive beyond a few niche
applications, major breakthroughs in non-
linear optical device technology would be
required, or perhaps a change in the nature
of computing itself.

Misconceptions, challenges,
and prospects
A significant challenge to optical
computing is that computation is a
nonlinear process in which multiple
signals must interact. Light, which is an
electromagnetic wave, can only interact
with another electromagnetic wave in the
presence of electrons in a material,[8] and
the strength of this interaction is much
weaker for electromagnetic waves, such
as light, than for the electronic signals in a
conventional computer. This may result in
the processing elements for an optical
computer requiring more power and larger
dimensions than those for a conventional
electronic computer using transistors.

A further misconception is that since light

can travel much faster than the drift
velocity of electrons, and at frequencies
measured in THz, optical transistors
should be capable of extremely high
frequencies. However, any
electromagnetic wave must obey the
transform limit, and therefore the rate at
which an optical transistor can respond to
a signal is still limited by its spectral
bandwidth. However, in fiber optic
communications, practical limits such as
dispersion often constrain channels to
bandwidths of 10s of GHz, only slightly
better than many silicon transistors.
Obtaining dramatically faster operation
than electronic transistors would therefore
require practical methods of transmitting
ultrashort pulses down highly dispersive
waveguides.

Photonic logic

Realization of a Photonic Controlled-NOT Gate for use

Realization of a Photonic Controlled-NOT Gate for use
in Quantum Computing

Photonic logic is the use of photons (light)

in logic gates (NOT, AND, OR, NAND, NOR,
XOR, XNOR). Switching is obtained using
nonlinear optical effects when two or
more signals are combined.[6]

Resonators are especially useful in

photonic logic, since they allow a build-up
of energy from constructive interference,
thus enhancing optical nonlinear effects.

Other approaches currently being

investigated include photonic logic at a
molecular level, using photoluminescent
chemicals. In a recent demonstration,
Witlicki et al. performed logical operations
using molecules and SERS.[9]

Unconventional approaches
Time delays optical computing

Basic idea is to delay light (or any other

signal) in order to perform useful
computations.[10] Of interest would be to
solve NP-Complete problems because
those are the most difficult problems for
the conventional computers.

There are 2 basic properties of light that

are actually used in this approach:
 The light can be delayed by passing it
through an optical fiber of a certain
length.
The light can be split into multiple
(sub)rays. This property is also essential
because we can evaluate multiple
solutions in the same time.

When solving a problem with time-delays

the following steps must be followed:

First step is to create a graph-like

structure made from optical cables and
splitters. Each graph has an Start node
and an Destination node.
The light enters through the Start node
and traverses the graph until it reaches
the Destination. It is delayed when
passing through arcs and divided inside
nodes.
The light is marked when passing
through an arc or through an node so
that we can easily identify that fact at
the Destination node.
At the destination node we will wait for
a signal (fluctuation in the intensity of
the signal) which arrives at a particular
moment(s) in time. If there is no signal
arriving at that moment, it means that
we have no solution for our problem.
 Otherwise the problem has a solution.
Fluctuations can be read with an
photodetector and an oscilloscope.

The first problem attacked in this way was

the Hamiltonian path problem.[10] Later,
other problems have been tackled in this
way .

The simplest one is the Subset sum

problem.[11] A optical device solving an
instance with 4 numbers {a1, a2, a3, a4} is
depicted below:
The light will enter in Start node. It will be
divided into 2 (sub)rays of smaller
intensity. These 2 rays will arrive into the
second node at moments a1 and 0. Each
of them will be divided into 2 subrays
which will arrive in the 3rd node at
moments 0, a1, a2 and a1 + a2. These
represents the all subsets of the set {a1,
a2}. We expect fluctuations in the intensity
of the signal at no more than 4 different
moments. In the destination node we
expect fluctuations at no more than 16
different moments (which are all the
subsets of the given. If we have a
fluctuation in the target moment B, it
means that we have a solution of the
problem, otherwise there is no subset
whose sum of elements equals B. For the
practical implementation we cannot have
zero-length cables, thus all cables are
increased with a small (fixed for all) value
k. In this case the solution is expected at
moment B+n*k.

Wavelength-based computing

Wavelength-based computing[12] can be

used to solve the 3-SAT problem with n
variables, m clause and with no more than
3 variables per clause. Each wavelength,
contained in a light ray, is considered as
possible value-assignments to n variables.
The optical device contains prisms and
mirrors are used to discriminate proper
wavelengths which satisfy the formula.

Computing by xeroxing on
transparencies

This approach uses a Xerox machine and

transparent sheets for performing
computations.[13] k-SAT problem with n
variables, m clauses and at most k
variables per clause has been solved in 3
steps:

Firstly all 2^n possible assignments of n

variables have been generated by
performing n xerox copies.
 Using at most 2k copies of the truth
table, each clause is evaluated at every
row of the truth table simultaneously.
The solution is obtained by making a
single copy operation of the overlapped
transparencies of all m clauses.

Masking optical beams

Travelling salesman problem has been

solved in[14] by using an optical approach.
All possible TSP paths have been
generated and stored in a binary matrix
which was multiplied with another gray-
scale vector containing the distances
between cities. The multiplication is
performed optically by using an optical
correlator.

Optical Fourier Co-processors

Many computations, particularly in

scientific applications, require frequent
use of the 2D discrete Fourier transform
(DFT) -- for example in solving differential
equations describing propagation of
waves or transfer of heat. Though modern
GPU technologies typically enable high-
speed computation of large 2D DFTs,
recently techniques have been developed
that can perform DFTs optically by utilising
the natural Fourier transforming property
of lenses. The input is encoded using a
liquid crystal spatial light modulator and
the result is measured using a
conventional CMOS or CCD image sensor.
Such optical architectures can offer
superior scaling of computational
complexity due to the inherently highly
interconnected nature of optical
propagation, and have been used to solve
2D heat equations. [15]

See also
Linear optical quantum computing
Optical neural network
Photonic molecule

References
References
1. Nolte, D.D. (2001). Mind at Light Speed: A
New Kind of Intelligence . Simon and
Schuster. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-7432-0501-6.
2. Feitelson, Dror G. (1988). "Chapter 3:
Optical Image and Signal Processing".
Optical Computing: A Survey for Computer
Scientists. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
ISBN 0-262-06112-0.
3. Kim, S. K.; Goda, K.; Fard, A. M.; Jalali, B.
(2011). "Optical time-domain analog pattern
correlator for high-speed real-time image
recognition". Optics Letters. 36 (2): 220.
doi:10.1364/ol.36.000220 .
4. https://www.rp-
photonics.com/nonlinear_index.html
5. Jain, K.; Pratt, Jr., G. W. (1976). "Optical
transistor". Appl. Phys. Lett. 28 (12): 719.
doi:10.1063/1.88627 .
6. US 4382660 , K. Jain & G.W. Pratt, Jr.,
"Optical transistors and logic circuits
embodying the same", published May 10,
1983
7. Tucker, R.S. (2010). "The role of optics in
computing" . Nature Photonics. 4: 405.
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.162 .
8. Philip R. Wallace (1996). Paradox Lost:
Images of the Quantum. ISBN 0387946594.
9. Witlicki, Edward H.; Johnsen, Carsten;
Hansen, Stinne W.; Silverstein, Daniel W.;
Bottomley, Vincent J.; Jeppesen, Jan O.;
Wong, Eric W.; Jensen, Lasse; Flood, Amar
H. (2011). "Molecular Logic Gates Using
Surface-Enhanced Raman-Scattered Light".
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133 (19): 7288–91.
doi:10.1021/ja200992x .
10. Mihai Oltean (2006). A light-based
device for solving the Hamiltonian path
problem. Unconventional Computing.
Springer LNCS 4135. pp. 217–227.
doi:10.1007/11839132_18 .
11. Mihai Oltean, Oana Muntean (2009).
"Solving the subset-sum problem with a
light-based device". Natural Computing.
Springer-Verlag. 8 (2): 321–331.
doi:10.1007/s11047-007-9059-3 .
12. Sama Goliaei, Saeed Jalili (2009). An
Optical Wavelength-Based Solution to the 3-
SAT Problem. Optical SuperComputing
Workshop. pp. 77–85. doi:10.1007/978-3-
642-10442-8_10 .
13. Tom Head (2009). Parallel Computing
by Xeroxing on Transparencies. Algorithmic
Bioprocesses. Springer. pp. 631–637.
doi:10.1007/978-3-540-88869-7_31 .
14. NT Shaked, S Messika, S Dolev, J Rosen
(2007). "Optical solution for bounded NP-
complete problems". Applied Optics. OSA.
46 (5): 711–724.
doi:10.1364/AO.46.000711 .
15. A. J. Macfaden, G. S. D. Gordon, T. D.
Wilkinson (2017). "An optical Fourier
transform coprocessor with direct phase
determination". Scientific Reports. Nature
Publishing Group. 7. doi:10.1038/s41598-
017-13733-1 .

Further reading
Feitelson, Dror G. (1988). Optical
Computing: A Survey for Computer
Scientists. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
ISBN 0-262-06112-0.
McAulay, Alastair D. (1991). Optical
Computer Architectures: The Application
of Optical Concepts to Next Generation
Computers. New York, NY: John Wiley &
Sons. ISBN 0-471-63242-2.
Ibrahim TA; Amarnath K; Kuo LC; Grover
R; Van V; Ho PT (2004). "Photonic logic
NOR gate based on two symmetric
microring resonators". Opt Lett. 29 (23):
2779–81. doi:10.1364/OL.29.002779 .
PMID 15605503 .
Biancardo M; Bignozzi C; Doyle H;
Redmond G (2005). "A potential and ion
switched molecular photonic logic
gate" . Chem. Commun. (31): 3918–20.
doi:10.1039/B507021J .
Jahns, J.; Lee, S.H., eds. (1993). Optical
Computing Hardware: Optical
Computing . Elsevier Science. ISBN 978-
1-4832-1844-1.
Barros S; Guan S; Alukaidey T (1997).
"An MPP reconfigurable architecture
using free-space optical interconnects
and Petri net configuring" . Journal of
System Architecture. 43 (6–7): 391–402.
doi:10.1016/S1383-7621(96)00053-7 .
D. Goswami, "Optical Computing",
Resonance, June 2003; ibid July 2003.
Web Archive of
www.iisc.ernet.in/academy/resonance/
July2003/July2003p8-21.html
Main T; Feuerstein RJ; Jordan HF;
Heuring VP; Feehrer J; Love CE (1994).
"Implementation of a general-purpose
stored-program digital optical
computer" . Applied Optics. 33: 1619–
28. doi:10.1364/AO.33.001619 .
PMID 20862187 .
Guan, T.S.; Barros, S.P.V. (April 1994).
"Reconfigurable Multi-Behavioural
Architecture using Free-Space Optical
Communication" . Proceedings of the
IEEE International Workshop on
Massively Parallel Processing using
Optical Interconnections. IEEE. pp. 293–
305. doi:10.1109/MPPOI.1994.336615 .
ISBN 0-8186-5832-0.
Guan, T.S.; Barros, S.P.V. (August 1994).
"Parallel Processor Communications
through Free-Space Optics" . TENCON
'94. IEEE Region 10's Ninth Annual
International Conference. Theme:
Frontiers of Computer Technology. 2.
IEEE. pp. 677–681.
doi:10.1109/TENCON.1994.369219 .
ISBN 0-7803-1862-5.
Guha A.; Ramnarayan R.; Derstine M.
(1987). "Architectural issues in
designing symbolic processors in
optics" . Proceedings of the 14th annual
international symposium on Computer
architecture (ISCA '87). ACM. pp. 145–
151. doi:10.1145/30350.30367 . ISBN 0-
8186-0776-9.
K.-H. Brenner, Alan Huang: "Logic and
architectures for digital optical
computers (A)", J. Opt. Soc. Am., A 3, 62,
(1986)
Brenner, K.-H. (1988). "A programmable
optical processor based on symbolic
substitution" . Appl. Opt. 27 (9): 1687–
91. doi:10.1364/AO.27.001687 .
PMID 20531637 .
Streibl N.; Brenner K.-H.; Huang A.;
Jahns J.; Jewell J.L.; Lohmann A.W.;
Miller D.A.B.; Murdocca M.J.; Prise M.E.;
Sizer II T. (1989). "Digital Optics" . Proc.
IEEE. 77 (12): 1954–69.
doi:10.1109/5.48834 .
NASA scientists working to improve
optical computing technology , 2000
Optical solutions for NP-complete
problems
Dolev, S.; Haist, T.; Oltean, M. (2008).
Optical SuperComputing: First
International Workshop, OSC 2008,
Vienna, Austria, August 26, 2008,
Proceedings . Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-
85672-6.
Dolev, S.; Oltean, M. (2009). Optical
Supercomputing: Second International
Workshop, OSC 2009, Bertinoro, Italy,
November 18–20, 2009, Proceedings .
Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-10441-1.
Dolev, S.; Oltean, M. (2011). Optical
Supercomputing: Third International
Workshop, OSC 2010, Bertinoro, Italy,
November 17–19, 2010, Revised Selected
Papers . Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-
22493-5.
Dolev, S.; Oltean, M. (2013). Optical
Supercomputing: 4th International
Workshop, OSC 2012, in Memory of H.
John Caulfield, Bertinoro, Italy, July 19–
21, 2012. Revised Selected Papers .
Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-38250-5.
 Speed-of-light computing comes a step
closer New Scientist
Caulfield H.; Dolev S. (2010). "Why future
supercomputing requires optics" .
Nature Photonics. 4: 261–263.
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.94 .
Cohen E.; Dolev S.; Rosenblit M. (2016).
"All-optical design for inherently energy-
conserving reversible gates and
circuits" . Nature Communications. 7:
11424. doi:10.1038/ncomms11424 .
PMC 4853429  . PMID 27113510 .

External links
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