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Analog photonic solutions offer unique opportunities to address complex computational tasks with unprecedented performance in terms of energy dissipation and speeds, overcoming current limitations of modern computing architectures based on electron flows and digital approaches. The lack of modularization and lumped element reconfigurability in photonics has prevented the transition to an all-optical analog computing platform. Here, we explore, using numerical simulation, a nanophotonic platform based on epsilon-near-zero materials capable of solving in the analog domain partial differential equations (PDE). Wavelength stretching in zero-index media enables highly nonlocal interactions within the board based on the conduction of electric displacement, which can be monitored to extract the solution of a broad class of PDE problems. By exploiting the experimentally achieved control of deposition technique through process parameters, used in our simulations, we demonstrate the possibility of implementing the proposed nano-optic processor using CMOS-compatible indium-tin-oxide, whose optical properties can be tuned by carrier injection to obtain programmability at high speeds and low energy requirements. Our nano-optical analog processor can be integrated at chip-scale, processing arbitrary inputs at the speed of light.

 

Abstract When solving, modeling or reasoning about complex problems, it is usually convenient to use the knowledge of a parallel physical system for representing it. This is the case of lumped-circuit abstraction, which can be used for representing mechanical and acoustic systems, thermal and heat-diffusion problems and in general partial differential equations. Integrated photonic platforms hold the prospective to perform signal processing and analog computing inherently, by mapping into hardware specific operations which relies on the wave-nature of their signals, without trusting on logic gates and digital states like electronics. Here, we argue that in absence of a straightforward parallelism a homomorphism can be induced. We introduce a photonic platform capable of mimicking Kirchhoff’s law in photonics and used as node of a finite difference mesh for solving partial differential equation using monochromatic light in the telecommunication wavelength. Our approach experimentally demonstrates an arbitrary set of boundary conditions, generating a one-shot discrete solution of a Laplace partial differential equation, with an accuracy above 95% with respect to commercial solvers. Our photonic engine can provide a route to achieve chip-scale, fast (10 s of ps), and integrable reprogrammable accelerators for the next generation hybrid high-performance computing. Summary A photonic integrated platform which can mimic Kirchhoff’s law in photonics is used for approximately solve partial differential equations noniteratively using light, with high throughput and low-energy levels. 

Abstract With success of silicon photonics having mature to foundry-readiness, the intrinsic limitations of the weak electro-optic effects in Silicon limit further device development. To overcome this, heterogeneous integration of emerging electrooptic materials into Si or SiN platforms are a promising path to deliver <1fJ/bit device-level efficiency, 50+Ghz fast switching, and <10's um^2 compact footprints. Graphene's Pauli blocking enables intriguing opportunities for device performance to include broadband absorption, unity-strong index modulation, low contact resistance. Similarly, ITO has shown ENZ behavior, and tunability for EOMs or EAMs. Here we review recent modulator advances all heterogeneously integrated on Si or SiN such as a) a DBR-enabled photonic 60 GHz graphene EAM, b) a hybrid plasmon graphene EAM of 100aJ/bit efficiency, d) the first ITO- based MZI showing a VpL = 0.52 V-mm, and e) a plasmonic ITO MZI with a record low VpL = 11 V- um. We conclude by discussing modulator scaling laws for a roadmap to achieve 10's aJ/bit devices.