Optical Computing

Abstract

Optical computing is an area of technology for information processing that utilizes excellent features of light. Beginning with some historical background of this technological field, the concept of optical computing is described with respect to definition, motivation, advantages, targets, and classifications. Then two major categories, analog optical computing and digital optical computing, are used to explain concrete instances of this technology. Analog optical computing includes Fourier image processing, acoustooptical signal processing, optical neural computing, and spatiotemporal information processing. Digital optical computing covers logic gates and circuit constructions, computing paradigms, optical computer architectures, and VLSI photonics. Finally, some comments on potential applications of optical computing are added to suggest effective areas for this technological field.