VI: Free-Space Optical Digital Computing and Interconnection

Abstract

This chapter reviews the progress made in the area of digital free-space optics. Digital computing is a complex task. The chapter discusses all three areas of information technology: processing, communications, and storage. Optics is being considered for the various levels of interconnections in an electronic computing system. Depending on the transmission distance and interconnection density, different optics technologies are of interest. The chapter explains the hardware-related issues from a computational point of view. The potential of free-space digital optics is based on the parallelism of the interconnections and on the availability of suitable devices to implement logic operations. The physics of nonlinear devices and optical interconnections is described. The chapter focuses on semiconductor devices that have the potential for high speed. Some of the architectural and systems aspects relevant to free-space optical digital computing and switching are also discussed in the chapter.