Excitable logic for photonic information processing

电子系统在高要求的数据处理和计算应用中被普遍采用;然而，它们易于具有与安全性相关的许多缺点。虽然可扩展的通用数字光学计算处理器仍然难以捉摸，但用于安全计算等专门任务的可重新配置全光门的演示是有吸引力的，因为光学设备既不会产生可以从远处观察到的电磁（EM）签名，也不会受到外部EM干扰的干扰，因此比电子设备带来的风险更小。有一个迫切的需要调查使用一个单一的设备，这是强大的，足以在恶劣的军事环境中运行，同时有可能提高计算速度的光学逻辑。本计画的目标是设计、建构及示范一个可重新组态的光闸，并以单一元件进行超快速资讯处理。具体而言，目标是通过基于激发性原理（对小扰动的全或无响应的非线性动力学机制）设计石墨烯基激光器的动力学来开发可重新配置的AND/NOT逻辑器件。激发性已被证明能够实现光子器件的阈值化和可调谐性，而石墨烯具有独特的光学性质，这些性质在处理的背景下特别有用，包括超快响应时间、宽带频率可调谐性和可调谐调制深度。如本文所设想的，用单个器件成功实现可重构光学逻辑门将为构建基于可激发逻辑原理的更大规模网络提供基础技术，这可能在电子战、传感、物理层安全、军事计算和空间应用中具有潜在应用。

Electronic systems are ubiquitously employed in highly-demanding data processing and computing applications; however, they are prone to numerous drawbacks related to security. While a scalable, general purpose digital optical computing processor has remained elusive, the demonstration of reconfigurable all-optical gates for specialized tasks such as in secure computing is attractive because optical devices neither generate an electromagnetic (EM) signature which can be observed from a distance nor can be jammed by external EM interference, hence posing less risk than their electronic counterparts. There is a pressing need to investigate optical logic using a single device, which is robust enough to operate in a rugged military environment while having the potential to increase computing speed. The objective of this project is to design, build and demonstrate a reconfigurable optical gate with a single device for ultrafast information processing. Specifically, the goal is to develop a reconfigurable AND/NOT logic device by engineering the dynamics of a graphene-based laser based on the principle of excitability (a non-linear dynamical mechanism underlying all-or-none responses to small perturbations). Excitability has been shown to enable thresholding and cascadability of photonic devices, while graphene has unique optical properties that are particularly useful in the context of processing, including a ultrafast response time, wideband frequency tunability, and a tunable modulation depth. Successful implementation of a reconfigurable optical logical gate with a single device, as envisioned here, would provide the fundamental technology to build larger scale networks that operate on principles of excitable logic, which could have potential applications in electronic warfare, sensing, physical layer security, military computing, and space applications.