All-optical nonlinear activation function based on stimulated Brillouin scattering

Slinkov G, Becker S, Englund D, Stiller B (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Nanophotonics De Gruyter Open

DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2024-0513

Abstract

Optical neural networks have demonstrated their potential to overcome the computational bottleneck of modern digital electronics. However, their development towards high-performing computing alternatives is hindered by one of the optical neural networks’ key components: the activation function. Most of the reported activation functions rely on opto-electronic conversion, sacrificing the unique advantages of photonics, such as resource-efficient coherent and frequency-multiplexed information encoding. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a photonic nonlinear activation function based on stimulated Brillouin scattering. It is coherent and frequency selective and can be tuned all-optically to take LEAKYRELU, SIGMOID, and QUADRATIC shape. Our design compensates for the insertion loss automatically by providing net gain as high as 20 dB, paving the way for deep optical neural networks.

Authors with CRIS profile

Steven Becker
Birgit Stiller

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts (MPL) / Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light DE Germany (DE) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Slinkov, G., Becker, S., Englund, D., & Stiller, B. (2025). All-optical nonlinear activation function based on stimulated Brillouin scattering. Nanophotonics. https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2024-0513

MLA:

Slinkov, Grigorii, et al. "All-optical nonlinear activation function based on stimulated Brillouin scattering." Nanophotonics (2025).

BibTeX: Download