An optical diffractive processing unit includes input nodes, output nodes; and neurons. The neurons are connected to the input nodes through optical diffractions. Weights of connection strength of the neurons are determined based on diffractive modulation. Each optoelectronic neuron is configured to perform an optical field summation of weighted inputs and generate a unit output by applying a complex activation to an optical field occurring naturally in a photoelectronic conversion. Each neuron is a programmable device.
OPTICAL DIFFRACTIVE PROCESSING UNIT