Femto-joule threshold reconfigurable all-optical nonlinear activators for picosecond pulsed optical neural networks

Ruizhe Liu; Zijia Wang; Chuyu Zhong; Yan Chen; Boshu Sun; Jialing Jian; Hui Ma; Dawei Gao; Jianyi Yang; Lan Li; Kaihui Liu; Xiaoyong Hu; Hongtao Lin

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02175-4

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Femto-joule threshold reconfigurable all-optical nonlinear activators for picosecond pulsed optical neural networks

Original Articles

- Femto-joule threshold reconfigurable all-optical nonlinear activators for picosecond pulsed optical neural networks
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 5, Pages: 1464-1475(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  2.Shenzhen Technology University, College of Integrated Circuits and Optoelectronic Chips, Shenzhen 518118, China
  3.Zhejiang Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization, Westlake Institute for Optoelectronics, Fuyang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311421, China
  4.Zhejiang Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310030, China
  5.College of Integrated Circuits, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  6.Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310024, China
  7.State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Author bio：
  
  Lan Li (lilan@westlake.edu)
  Kaihui Liu (khliu@pku.edu.cn)
  Xiaoyong Hu (xiaoyonghu@pku.edu.cn)
  Hongtao Lin (hometown@zju.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02175-4
  CLC：
- Received：16 February 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-11-19，
  
  Accepted：19 December 2025，
  
  Online First：27 February 2026，
  
  Published：31 May 2026
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Liu, R. Z. et al. Femto-joule threshold reconfigurable all-optical nonlinear activators for picosecond pulsed optical neural networks. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1464-1475 (2026).
DOI：

Liu, R. Z. et al. Femto-joule threshold reconfigurable all-optical nonlinear activators for picosecond pulsed optical neural networks. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1464-1475 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02175-4.

摘要

Abstract

Achieving optical computing with thousands of tera-operations per second per watt per square millimeter (TOPs/W/mm

) is the key to surpassing electrical computing. This realization requires a breakthrough in the design of a new optical computing architecture and nonlinear activation functions. By leveraging the Kerr effect of silicon and the saturable absorption of graphene

we designed an all-optical nonlinear activator based on a graphene-silicon integrated photonic crystal cavity. The ultralow-threshold

high-speed

compact

and reconfigurable all-optical nonlinear activator could achieve a saturable absorption energy threshold of 4 fJ and a response time of 1.05 ps

a reconfigurable nonlinear activation threshold of 30 fJ and a response time of 4 ps

and an ultrasmall size of 15 μm × 10 μm. This device provides foundation blocks for the picosecond pulsed optical neural network chip to achieve 10

TOPs/W/mm

level optical computing.

关键词

Keywords

references

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