FEMTOSECOND OPTICAL CORRELATION USING 4-WAVE-MIXING

A matched-filter optical correlator was built using four-wave mixing i n an air-stable degenerate ground state conjugated polymer. The four-w ave mixing architecture results in a highly parallel optical computer which completes an image correlation in less than 160 fs. The images c orrelated were each 5000 pixels in size, resulting in a peak data proc essing rate of 3 x 10(16) operations per second. The results demonstra te the application of the large third order nonlinear optical suscepti bilities of conjugated polymers in optical computing, achieving data p rocessing rates that cannot be approached by current electronic comput ers.