All-optical computing, with its inherent advantages of low power consumption, fast processing speed, high throughput, and parallel computation capability, has emerged as a promising approach.
Integrating high-resolution imaging with on-demand, arbitrary-order differentiation on a robust, low-size, weight, and power platform is critical for the advancement of all-optical computing systems, yet remains an outstanding challenge that warrants further investigation.
The team implemented two types of metasurface differentiators, each capable of performing 0th/1st-order and 2nd/3rd-order spin-multiplexed differentiation.
"This work provides a practical pathway toward ultracompact all‑optical computing devices," says Professor Cheng Zhang.
Potential applications span real‑time biological imaging, material inspection, machine vision, and other fields that require fast, parallel processing of optical information.