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<title>Programmable photonics</title>
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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Programmable photonics</span></span>
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<p><b>Programmable photonics</b> is a subfield of <a href="Photonics" title="Photonics">photonics</a> and <a href="Optical_computing" title="Optical computing">optical computing</a> that studies the development of <a href="Photonic_integrated_circuits" class="mw-redirect" title="Photonic integrated circuits">photonic integrated circuits</a> (PICs) for computation whose circuits can be altered at runtime to run different programs, rather than manufacturing each PIC for a specific program. Almost all modern electronic <a href="Integrated_circuits" class="mw-redirect" title="Integrated circuits">integrated circuits</a> are programmable and thus programmable photonics is an important step in making optical computing mainstream; a non-programmable electronic integrated circuit (analogous to a non-programmable <a href="Photonic_integrated_circuits" class="mw-redirect" title="Photonic integrated circuits">PIC</a>) would be e.g. an <a href="ASIC" class="mw-redirect" title="ASIC">ASIC</a> that can only run inference of a specific <a href="Large_Language_Model" class="mw-redirect" title="Large Language Model">LLM</a>.
</p><p>Programmable PICs most frequently alter their circuits at runtime by using electronics to manipulate the <a href="Refractive_index" title="Refractive index">refractive index</a> of specific regions/features in the lens via thermal changes, relying on the <a href="Thermo-optic_coefficient" title="Thermo-optic coefficient">thermo-optic coefficient</a> of the lens material.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The circuits themselves usually are formed by <a href="Mach%E2%80%93Zehnder_interferometer" title="Mach–Zehnder interferometer">Mach–Zehnder interferometer</a> arrays that can perform arbitrary <a href="Linear" class="mw-redirect" title="Linear">linear</a> operations, e.g. <a href="Fourier_transforms" class="mw-redirect" title="Fourier transforms">Fourier transforms</a>;<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> other operations, such as logic gates, require <a href="Nonlinear_optics" title="Nonlinear optics">nonlinear optics</a> techniques like <a href="Second-harmonic_generation" title="Second-harmonic generation">second-harmonic generation</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">
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</style><cite id="CITEREFBogaertsPérezCapmanyMiller2020" class="citation journal cs1">Bogaerts, Wim; Pérez, Daniel; Capmany, José; Miller, David A. B.; Poon, Joyce; Englund, Dirk; Morichetti, Francesco; Melloni, Andrea (October 2020). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2764-0">"Programmable photonic circuits"</a>. <i>Nature</i>. <b>586</b> (7828): <span class="nowrap">207–</span>216. <a href="Bibcode_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Bibcode (identifier)">Bibcode</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020Natur.586..207B">2020Natur.586..207B</a>. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41586-020-2764-0">10.1038/s41586-020-2764-0</a>. <a href="Hdl_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hdl (identifier)">hdl</a>:<span class="id-lock-free" title="Freely accessible"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://hdl.handle.net/1854%2FLU-8681996">1854/LU-8681996</a></span>. <a href="ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1476-4687">1476-4687</a>. <a href="PMID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMID (identifier)">PMID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33028997">33028997</a>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFRibeiroRuoccoVanackerBogaerts2016" class="citation journal cs1">Ribeiro, Antonio; Ruocco, Alfonso; Vanacker, Laurent; Bogaerts, Wim (20 December 2016). "Demonstration of a 4 × 4-port universal linear circuit". <i>Optica</i>. <b>3</b> (12): 1348. <a href="Bibcode_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Bibcode (identifier)">Bibcode</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Optic...3.1348R">2016Optic...3.1348R</a>. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1364%2FOPTICA.3.001348">10.1364/OPTICA.3.001348</a>. <a href="Hdl_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hdl (identifier)">hdl</a>:<span class="id-lock-free" title="Freely accessible"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://hdl.handle.net/1854%2FLU-8504296">1854/LU-8504296</a></span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFBogoniWuBakhtiariNuccio2010" class="citation journal cs1">Bogoni, Antonella; Wu, Xiaoxia; Bakhtiari, Zahra; Nuccio, Scott; Willner, Alan E. (1 December 2010). <span class="id-lock-subscription" title="Paid subscription required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://opg.optica.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-35-23-3955">"640 Gbits/s photonic logic gates"</a></span>. <i>Optics Letters</i>. <b>35</b> (23): <span class="nowrap">3955–</span>3957. <a href="Bibcode_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Bibcode (identifier)">Bibcode</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010OptL...35.3955B">2010OptL...35.3955B</a>. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1364%2FOL.35.003955">10.1364/OL.35.003955</a>. <a href="ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1539-4794">1539-4794</a>. <a href="PMID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMID (identifier)">PMID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21124577">21124577</a>.</cite></span>
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