Photonic-computing error correction through optical en-/decoder calibrations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a versatile error correction method for photonic processors that significantly reduces errors without adding extra components, enhancing their accuracy for matrix-vector computations.

Contribution

The proposed optical en-/decoder calibration technique is novel in its generality and effectiveness, especially in mitigating unbalanced-loss errors in photonic computing.

Findings

Achieves over 90% error reduction in large meshes

Effectively mitigates unbalanced-loss errors

Does not require additional photonic components

Abstract

Photonic processors have emerged as an attractive platform for fast and energy-efficient matrix-vector multiplication. However, they are susceptible to error due to their analog nature. Here, we present an error-correction technique that implements a correction offset to the optical en-/decoders of photonic processors. Our proposed method is general-purpose, does not require introducing any additional components to the photonic network, and can address errors stemming from unbalanced losses, 50/50 beamsplitter deviations, digital-to-analog conversion inaccuracies, and any unknown sources. In particular, we show that our method is highly effective in mitigating unbalanced-loss errors, a problem that has not previously been addressed by any error-correction technique. Using this approach, we achieve over 90% error reduction in large triangular meshes, overcoming a key obstacle to highly accurate photonic processors for information processing.