Collection 

Optical computing

Submission status
Open
Submission deadline

In the age of information, data processing and computation are essential. But current computation devices lack scalability and suffer from high carbon emissions. So researchers are constantly looking for alternative architectures and paradigms. Optical (or photonic) computing has emerged as a promising and innovative field with the potential to revolutionize various aspects of computing and information processing. It offers high-speed and parallel computation with significantly less energy consumption. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the field of optical computing and its interdisciplinary applications: platforms, architectures, integrable hardware and protocols for storage, encryption, data and signal processing and computation.

This is a joint collection between Communications Physics and Communications Engineering, with a scope covering the most fundamental to the most applied aspects of the Collection’s topic. The aim of the collection is to create a cross-journal venue to maximize the exposure for the manuscripts across different readerships and communities. The submissions will be handled by the in-house editors and guest editors in each journal independently. The editorial team may recommend a transfer of submissions between journals based on best fit to the journal scope.

We invite researchers from both academia and industry in optical computing to contribute their original research Articles, Reviews, and Perspectives to this Collection. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Optical, photonics and quantum neural networks, machine learning, reservoir computing
  • Optical and photonics logic components, processors and optimisers
  • Optical, photonics and quantum data storage and encryption
  • Enabling materials and devices
  • Computing architectures, e.g., Ising machines, free-space optics, programmable photonic circuits
  • Challenges in the practical implementation and integration of platforms for optical computing
  • Novel optical computing applications in image processing, signal processing, radio communications, fiber transmission, cryptography, sensing and more.
To submit, see the participating journals
CPU Chip on Motherboard - abstract 3D render of a computer processor chip on a circuit board with microchips and other computer parts

Editors