Sub-milliwatt threshold power and tunable-bias all-optical nonlinear activation function using vanadium dioxide for wavelength-division multiplexing photonic neural networks.

ABSTRACT: The increasing demand for efficient hardware in neural computation highlights the limitations of electronic-based systems in terms of speed, energy efficiency, and scalability. Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) photonic neural networks offer a high-bandwidth, low-latency alternative but require effective photonic activation functions. Here, we propose a power-efficient and tunable-bias all-optical nonlinear activation function using vanadium dioxide (VO₂) for WDM photonic neural networks. We engineered a SiN/BTO waveguide with a VO₂ patch to exploit the phase-change material's reversible insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) for nonlinear activation. We conducted numerical simulations to optimize the waveguide geometry and VO₂ parameters, minimizing prop

SUBMITTER: Parra J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11829994 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature