Femtosecond optical correlation using four-wave mixing

A matched-filter optical correlator was built using four-wave mixing in an air-stable degenerate ground state conjugated polymer. The four-wave mixing architecture results in a highly parallel optical computer which completes an image correlation in less than 160 fs. The images correlated were each 5000 pixels in size, resulting in a peak data processing rate of 3 × 1016 operations per second. The results demonstrate the application of the large third order nonlinear optical susceptibilities of conjugated polymers in optical computing, achieving data processing rates that cannot be approached by current electronic computers.