A coherent perceptron for all-optical learning

Abstract

We present nonlinear photonic circuit models for constructing programmable linear transformations and use these to realize a coherent perceptron, i.e., an all-optical linear classifier capable of learning the classification boundary iteratively from training data through a coherent feedback rule. Through extensive semi-classical stochastic simulations we demonstrate that the device nearly attains the theoretical error bound for a model classification problem.