Reconfigurable optical neuron based on photoelectret materials

An all-optical reconfigurable neuron based on a photoelectret-electro-optic medium with a sandwich-type structure is presented. Both the inputs and the output of the neuron and the reconfiguration of the weights of the inputs are optical. The structure presented is very versatile and exhibits low energy consumption, as the numerical estimates indicate. The number of inputs can be varied (to an upper limit that is determined by the diffraction effect) without changing the structure of the optical neuron; the same is true for the neurons' weights. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America.