Optical Logic Gate Operations With Single-Pixel Imaging

Optical computing has potential advantages of light-speed parallel processing and low power consumption over electronic computing. Logic gates are fundamental building blocks of modern computing systems. In this work, two types of single-pixel imaging systems are investigated for performing a non-imaging task of optical logic gate operations for the first time. In the first scheme, the spatial light intensity distribution of object image and illumination pattern is encoded based on the input binary values. Then the logic gate output result is indicated by the maximum single-pixel intensity when the encoded object image is incoherently illuminated by a most matched pattern. In the second scheme, the light amplitudes in corresponding sub-regions are directly proportional to the binary input values. A universal linear approximation model in the complex-amplitude domain allows the detected light intensity of a single-pixel holography system representing the logic gate output result. Various logic gate operations such as AND, OR and XOR can be implemented by these two systems in an individual or compound manner.