Abstract

The emphasis here is to assess the potential role of nonlinear thin-film etalons in optical computing. Nonlinear optics can contribute decisions to optical signal processing and computing.¹ The optical nonlinearity makes the device's transmission intensity dependent, so one can obtain the thresholding needed for logic decision making. Nonlinear decision-making devices can be constructed as waveguides in which the light is guided in the plane of the nonlinear thin film or as etalons in which the light is imaged from one nonlinear thin film to the next in such a way that its intensity is highest as it interacts with each film. Guided-wave devices are most likely to find application where data are handled in a pipeline manner, for example, in optical-fiber communication and interconnect systems, data encryption, etc. However, waveguides are much like wires except for their higher bandwidth. Etalons permit massive parallelism and global interconnectivity, i.e., one can perform many operations simultaneously and interconnect in the next plane two or more pixels far apart in the present plane. Consequently we anticipate the use of guided-wave devices in the near term and increased introduction of etalons in the long term.

© 1987 Optical Society of America