Photonic machine learning with on-chip diffractive optics

Machine learning technologies have been extensively applied in high-performance information-processing fields. However, the computation rate of existing hardware is severely circumscribed by conventional Von Neumann architecture. Photonic approaches have demonstrated extraordinary potential for executing deep learning processes that involve complex calculations. In this work, an on-chip diffractive optical neural network (DONN) based on a silicon-on-insulator platform is proposed to perform machine learning tasks with high integration and low power consumption characteristics. To validate the proposed DONN, we fabricated 1-hidden-layer and 3-hidden-layer on-chip DONNs with footprints of 0.15 mm² and 0.3 mm² and experimentally verified their performance on the classification task of the Iris plants dataset, yielding accuracies of 86.7% and 90%, respectively. Furthermore, a 3-hidden-layer on-chip DONN is fabricated to classify the Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology handwritten digit images. The proposed passive on-chip DONN provides a potential solution for accelerating future artificial intelligence hardware with enhanced performance.