Nanosecond-latency all-optical fiber sensing with in-sensor computing

Yu Tao; Yangyang Wan; Ziwen Long; Wenjia Zhang; Jiangbing Du; Zuyuan He

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02265-x

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Nanosecond-latency all-optical fiber sensing with in-sensor computing

Original Articles

- Nanosecond-latency all-optical fiber sensing with in-sensor computing
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 8, Pages: 2756-2769(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  State Key Laboratory of Photonics and Communications, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- Author bio：
  
  Yangyang Wan (YangyangWan@sjtu.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02265-x
  CLC：
- Received：04 September 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-01-24，
  
  Accepted：01 March 2026，
  
  Online First：25 May 2026，
  
  Published：31 August 2026
- Accepted：
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Tao, Y. et al. Nanosecond-latency all-optical fiber sensing with in-sensor computing. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2756-2769 (2026).
DOI：

Tao, Y. et al. Nanosecond-latency all-optical fiber sensing with in-sensor computing. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2756-2769 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02265-x.

摘要

Abstract

Optical fiber sensing plays a crucial role in modern measurement systems and holds significant promise for a wide range of applications. This potential

though

has been fundamentally constrained by the intrinsic latency and power limitations associated with electronic signal processing. Here

we propose an all-optical fiber sensing architecture with in-sensor computing (AOFS-IC) that achieves fully optical-domain sensing signal demodulation at the speed of light. By integrating a scattering medium with an optimized diffractive optical network

AOFS-IC enables linear mapping of physical perturbations to detected intensity

and sensing results can be directly read out without electronic processing. The proposed system maintains high accuracy across various sensing tasks

providing sub-nano strain resolution and 100% torsional angle classification accuracy

as well as multiplexed sensing of multiple physical quantities

and performing multi-degree-of-freedom robot arm monitoring. AOFS-IC eliminates computing hardware requirements while providing < 3 ns demodulation delay

which is more than 2 orders of magnitude faster than conventional fiber optic sensing systems. This work demonstrates the potential of next-generation optical sensing systems empowered by all-optical computing and paves the way for expanded applications of fiber sensing through the integration of fully optical components

ultrafast measurement speed

and low power consumption.

关键词

Keywords

references

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