Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing
Unitarity serves as a fundamental concept for characterizing linear and conservative wave phenomena in both classical and quantum systems. Developing platforms that perform unitary operations on light waves in a universal and programmable manner enables the emulation of complex light–matter interact...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Nanophotonics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2024-0602 |
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| _version_ | 1849700124616294400 |
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| author | Kim Kyuho Park Kunwoo Park Hyungchul Yu Sunkyu Park Namkyoo Piao Xianji |
| author_facet | Kim Kyuho Park Kunwoo Park Hyungchul Yu Sunkyu Park Namkyoo Piao Xianji |
| author_sort | Kim Kyuho |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Unitarity serves as a fundamental concept for characterizing linear and conservative wave phenomena in both classical and quantum systems. Developing platforms that perform unitary operations on light waves in a universal and programmable manner enables the emulation of complex light–matter interactions and the execution of general-purpose functionalities for wave manipulations, photonic computing, and quantum circuits. Recently, numerous approaches to implementing programmable photonic unitary circuits have been proposed and demonstrated, each employing different design strategies that distinctly impact overall device performance. Here, we review foundational design principles and recent achievements in the implementation of programmable photonic unitary circuits, with a particular focus on integrated photonic platforms. We classify the design strategies based on the dimensionality of nontrivial unit operations in their building blocks: lower-dimensional unitary units, such as SU(2) operations, and higher-dimensional ones, such as Fourier transforms. In each category, recent efforts to leverage alternative physical axes, such as the temporal and frequency domains, to address scalability challenges are also reviewed. We discuss the underlying concepts, design procedures, and trade-offs of each design strategy, especially in relation to light-based computing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5addf6b43f804fdc82a80f7d83253dfb |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2192-8614 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nanophotonics |
| spelling | doaj-art-5addf6b43f804fdc82a80f7d83253dfb2025-08-20T03:18:23ZengDe GruyterNanophotonics2192-86142025-02-0114101429144910.1515/nanoph-2024-0602Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computingKim Kyuho0Park Kunwoo1Park Hyungchul2Yu Sunkyu3Park Namkyoo4Piao Xianji5Intelligent Wave Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul08826, KoreaIntelligent Wave Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul08826, KoreaIntelligent Wave Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul08826, KoreaIntelligent Wave Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul08826, KoreaPhotonic Systems Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul08826, KoreaWave Engineering Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul02504, KoreaUnitarity serves as a fundamental concept for characterizing linear and conservative wave phenomena in both classical and quantum systems. Developing platforms that perform unitary operations on light waves in a universal and programmable manner enables the emulation of complex light–matter interactions and the execution of general-purpose functionalities for wave manipulations, photonic computing, and quantum circuits. Recently, numerous approaches to implementing programmable photonic unitary circuits have been proposed and demonstrated, each employing different design strategies that distinctly impact overall device performance. Here, we review foundational design principles and recent achievements in the implementation of programmable photonic unitary circuits, with a particular focus on integrated photonic platforms. We classify the design strategies based on the dimensionality of nontrivial unit operations in their building blocks: lower-dimensional unitary units, such as SU(2) operations, and higher-dimensional ones, such as Fourier transforms. In each category, recent efforts to leverage alternative physical axes, such as the temporal and frequency domains, to address scalability challenges are also reviewed. We discuss the underlying concepts, design procedures, and trade-offs of each design strategy, especially in relation to light-based computing.https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2024-0602unitary operationphotonic circuitprogrammable photonicsphotonic computinguniversal unitary |
| spellingShingle | Kim Kyuho Park Kunwoo Park Hyungchul Yu Sunkyu Park Namkyoo Piao Xianji Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing Nanophotonics unitary operation photonic circuit programmable photonics photonic computing universal unitary |
| title | Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing |
| title_full | Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing |
| title_fullStr | Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing |
| title_short | Programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing |
| title_sort | programmable photonic unitary circuits for light computing |
| topic | unitary operation photonic circuit programmable photonics photonic computing universal unitary |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2024-0602 |
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