Controlling light with light: Researchers develop a new platform for all-optical computing

guest · Feb 5, 2020

Controlling light with light: Researchers develop a new platform for all-optical computing
The future of computation is bright—literally.
February 5, 2020
https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/controlling-light-with-light/

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in collaboration with researchers at McMaster University and University of Pittsburgh, have developed a new platform for all-optical computing, meaning computations done solely with beams of light.

“The idea behind all-optical computing is to remove those rigid components and control light with light. Imagine, for example, an entirely soft, circuitry-free robot driven by light from the sun.”

These platforms rely on so-called non-linear materials that change their refractive index in response to the intensity of light. When light is shone through these materials, the refractive index in the path of the beam increases, generating its own, light-made waveguide.
When multiple beams are shone through the material, they interact and affect each other, even at large distances.

"We can imagine, in the long term, designing computing operations using this intelligent responsiveness."
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Controlling light with light: Researchers develop a new platform for all-optical computing

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