Physicists create hybrid light-matter particles that interact strongly enough to compute
May 18
1 min read
PHYS.org — Many photonic AI chips can already perform straightforward calculations using light, Zhen says, but to do nonlinear activation steps such as applying decision rules, they still must convert light signals back into slower, more energy-hungry electronic ones.
Those repeated translations erode the speed and efficiency that make photonic computing attractive. By using exciton–polaritons, the team demonstrated all-light switching at about 4 quadrillionths of a joule, which is an extraordinarily small amount of energy—far less than the energy used to briefly power a tiny LED light.
