Micro- and nano-fabrication allow new optical systems well beyond previous conventional optics. These possibilities cause us to think of optics quite differently. One approach uses “circuits” with topologies and configuration algorithms. Some such topologies support algorithms allow rapid self-configuration, adapting automatically, such as undoing scattering between multiple overlapping beams. Other approaches, such as inverse design, allow almost arbitrarily complex structures. Such different optics need new theoretical approaches and results, giving new scalings, limits and bounds. This talk will summarize work on optical circuits for applications, in computing, communications, and sensing, and new fundamental directions in understanding limits to optical systems.
|