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Volume 6 Issue ，2026
Research Article
Abstract：Photonics has the potential to transform high-speed and energy-efficient artificial intelligence. However, most photonic computing platforms still rely on costly electro-optic conversions for data input, weight loading and storage, resulting in substantial overhead during large-scale computation. Here, we present a large-scale photonic in-memory computing platform based on liquid crystal (LC)-enabled Poincaré-sphere-connected neural networks. Megabyte-level nonvolatile photonic memory is introduced through light-driven reorientation of sulfonic azo-dye and LC molecules, which also functions as the reconfigurable optical neurons. This architecture uniquely integrates optical sensing, memory, and computing in situ, allowing minimal data-movement overheads in various switchable machine vision tasks. Ultrahigh scalability is demonstrated by a 9.44-million-neuron photonic processor array that supports massively parallel optical computing, recording and retrieval, providing a memory capacity 100,000 times larger than state-of-the-art photonic in-memory computing. This work offers a novel pathway toward scalable submicrometer-precision photonic memory, thus establishing a new paradigm for physical neural networks and brain-like artificial intelligence.Keywords：Optical computing;Optical neural networks;Polarization optics;Liquid crystals;Reconfigurable microstructures34|8|0Updated：2026-08-31- Abstract：Real-time intelligent systems increasingly require hardware that can adapt continuously to evolving inputs, yet most existing processors rely on static-weight inference, making them vulnerable to distribution shifts and error accumulation in dynamic environments. Although adaptive weight updates can, in principle, address this limitation, their implementation on electronic hardware is hindered by the stability–plasticity trade-off, as well as by the memory wall and clocking bottlenecks that become particularly severe in sequential processing. Here, we present a Temporally Plastic Photonic Processor (TPPP) that enables ultra-fast in situ adaptation by combining multi-timescale photonic kernels with a recursive optical delay memory. The architecture integrates a slow, reconfigurable kernel for stable long-term processing and a fast, dynamic kernel for transient adaptation, enabling time-varying weights to be embedded directly in the photonic domain without repeated electronic memory access. We experimentally validate the TPPP on linear and nonlinear sequential tasks. In both regimes, data-driven temporal plasticity enables the TPPP to outperform conventional static photonic baselines in robustness and accuracy. Under an operation-matched INT8 comparison, scaling analysis projects up to 16 × higher per-operation energy efficiency and up to 100 × lower intrinsic single-pass compute delay than advanced electronic processors, establishing the TPPP as a promising hardware framework for real-time adaptive photonic computing.11|4|0Updated：2026-07-23
- Abstract：Optical skyrmions, particle-like topological textures of light with resilience to perturbation, hold great promise for next-generation robust information carriers. Recent advances have enabled their efficient generation and modulation in both classical and quantum regimes via artificial nanostructures with certain topological landscapes. However, existing studies are largely confined to (quasi)monochromatic domain, because the resonance-based linear and nonlinear light-matter interactions are constrained by narrowband response and strong spectral dispersion. Therefore, the exploration of coloured and white light skyrmions is virtually zero, blocking their extension to broadband information technologies. Here, we present an ultra-compact micro-generator that generates ultra-broadband coloured skyrmions from a natural ferroelectric spherulite crystal through the combined action of the photonic spin-orbital coupling and optical focusing. This approach circumvents the resonance effects intrinsic to artificially nanostructured optical systems. The resulting polychromatic skyrmions cover the entire visible spectral range and can propagate over an appreciable distance in free space. Their topological textures can be continually modulated by tuning the polarization of the incident beam, enabling switching among multiple topologies, such as skyrmions, biskyrmions, and quadrumerons. Furthermore, we reported the experimental evidence of spontaneous parametric down conversion process occurring within the ferroelectric spherulite, which implies the possibility to generate the correlated topological quantum states in further research. These distinctive features will revolutionize modern informatic applications spanning optical communication, data storage, and topological photonic devices.27|36|0Updated：2026-05-11
- Abstract：The ultimate non-classic light sources for modern photonic quantum technology require on-demand generation of indistinguishable quantum light with high brightness and flexible engineering of quantum emission in multiple degrees of freedom. In this work, we present monolithic microcavity-metalens interfaces consisting of quantum-dot-micropillar single-photon sources and ultra-thin metalenses accurately aligned on opposite sides of an III-V compound semiconductor chip. The pronounced cavity quantum electrodynamics effect enabled by the micropillar cavity facilitates single-photon emission from quantum dots with simultaneous high degrees of single-photon purity, source brightness and photon indistinguishability while the multi-functional metalenses concurrently tailor quantum emission in multiple physical degrees of freedom including radiation divergence, emission directionality, polarization state and orbital angular momentum (OAM). Furthermore, high-fidelity polarization-OAM entanglement and single photons with local spin topologies are successfully generated in our integrated device. In particular, we demonstrate stable propagations of single-photon skrymions in atmospheric turbulence and reveal their topological advantages over the conventional structured quantum light. Our work advances the research fields of integrated quantum photonics and meta-optics, providing integrated high-dimensional quantum light sources for advanced photonic quantum science and technology.22|51|0Updated：2026-04-23
Editorial
Abstract：A research team demonstrated a 2067-km field-deployed optical frequency dissemination link over standard telecommunications fiber. The system achieved a record fractional frequency instability of 2.9 × 10⁻21 at one day averaging time, and maintained continuous phase lock for more than four days, marking a major step toward large-scale optical clock networks and future precision timing infrastructure.6|1|0Updated：2026-08-14- Abstract：The inability to resolve closely spaced objects fundamentally limits the information accessible to optical imaging systems. In a recent study, a k-space superoscillation framework is introduced as an alternative route to far-field superresolution imaging. By engineering a nonlocal, angle-dependent transmission function, the approach effectively redistributes spatial-frequency content in momentum space, enabling enhanced separation of image features without narrowing the point spread function. Implemented via an inverse-designed multilayer metastructure, the concept is experimentally validated at microwave frequencies, achieving an approximately twofold improvement in resolution. By suppressing real-space sidebands and concentrating energy into the focal region, the k-space approach addresses key limitations of conventional real-space superoscillation. Despite remaining challenges, such as scalability and bandwidth constraints, this work highlights the growing role of inverse design in enabling unconventional optical functionalities and offers a promising pathway toward practical superresolution imaging systems.27|24|0Updated：2026-07-10
- Abstract：A hybrid quantum photonic platform integrates cavity-enhanced single-photon emission with metasurface-enabled wavefront control, pointing toward scalable sources of high-dimensional quantum light.24|11|0Updated：2026-07-10
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- Abstract：Hybrid metasurface–refractive systems have often raised concerns about their overall volume and the complexity of mechanical alignment. This reported study presents a fully integrated meta-aspheric optical system that realizes a wide field of view within an ultracompact volume of 0.02 cm3.20|18|0Updated：2026-06-03
- Abstract：Lensless imaging offers a scalable, hardware-light route to optical microscopy but has largely remained structural. In a recent study, Wang et al. demonstrate that molecular specificity can be intrinsically encoded and computationally recovered within a fully lensless framework. This work reframes lensless imaging from scaling structure to encoding function, highlighting an emerging paradigm in which optical simplicity and information completeness are co-designed through optics and computation.22|19|0Updated：2026-05-06
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