Optical computing metasurfaces: applications and advances

Integrated photonic devices and artificial intelligence have presented a significant opportunity for the advancement of optical computing in practical applications. Optical computing technology is a unique computing system based on optical devices and computing functions, which significantly differs from the traditional electronic computing technology. On the other hand, optical computing technology offers the advantages such as fast speed, low energy consumption, and high parallelism. Yet there are still challenges such as device integration and portability. In the burgeoning development of micro–nano optics technology, especially the deeply ingrained concept of metasurface technique, it provides an advanced platform for optical computing applications, including edge detection, image or motion recognition, logic computation, and on-chip optical computing. With the aim of providing a comprehensive introduction and perspective for optical computing metasurface applications, we review the recent research advances of optical computing, from nanostructure and computing methods to practical applications. In this work, we review the challenges and analysis of optical computing metasurfaces in engineering field and look forward to the future development trends of optical computing.