Optical machine learning has emerged as an important research area that, by leveraging the advantages inherent to optical signals, such as parallelism and high speed, paves the way for a future where optical hardware can process data at the speed of light. In this work, we present such optical devices for data processing in the form of single-layer nanoscale holographic perceptrons trained to perform optical inference tasks. We experimentally show the functionality of these passive optical devices in the example of decryptors trained to perform optical inference of single or whole classes of keys through symmetric and asymmetric decryption. The decryptors, designed for operation in the near-infrared region, are nanoprinted on complementary metal-oxide–semiconductor chips by galvo-dithered two-photon nanolithography with axial nanostepping of 10 nm1,2, achieving a neuron density of >500 million neurons per square centimetre. This power-efficient commixture of machine learning and on-chip integration may have a transformative impact on optical decryption3, sensing4, medical diagnostics5 and computing6,7.

Retrieving the pupil phase of a beam path is a central problem for optical systems across scales, from telescopes, where the phase information allows for aberration correction, to the imaging of near-transparent biological samples in phase contrast microscopy. Current phase retrieval schemes rely on complex digital algorithms that process data acquired from precise wavefront sensors, reconstructing the optical phase information at great expense of computational resources. Here, we present a compact optical-electronic module based on multi-layered diffractive neural networks printed on imaging sensors, capable of directly retrieving Zernike-based pupil phase distributions from an incident point spread function. We demonstrate this concept numerically and experimentally, showing the direct pupil phase retrieval of superpositions of the first 14 Zernike polynomials. The integrability of the diffractive elements with CMOS sensors shows the potential for the direct extraction of the pupil phase information from a detector module without additional digital post-processing.

The theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration of a waveguide resonator are presented based on bound states in the continuum in an integrated photonic chip platform. The continuum has the form of a collimated beam of light which is confined vertically in a transverse electric (TE) mode of a silicon slab. The bound state is a discrete transverse‐magnetic (TM)‐like mode of a ridge on the silicon slab. The coupling between the slab and ridge modes results in a single sharp resonance at the wavelength where they phase match. This phenomenon is experimentally demonstrated on a silicon photonic chip using foundry‐compatible parameters and it is interfaced on‐chip to standard single‐mode silicon nanowire waveguides. The fabricated chip exhibits a single sharp resonance near 1550 nm with a line width of a few nanometers, an extinction ratio of 25 dB, and a thermal stability of 19.5 pm °C−1. It is believed that the demonstration of a resonance operating near a bound state in the continuum realized using guided wave components will form the basis of a new approach to on‐chip wavelength filtering and sensing applications.

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We present a method to bond unstructured and structured SU-8 films down to sub-micron thicknesses onto microchannels fabricated in KMPR using a flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp. By exploiting differently casted PDMS stamps, 3D microfluidic channel networks, air-suspended photonic devices and optofluidic structures have been fabricated. First, microchannels of KMPR are patterned by photolithography and an SU-8 film is spin coated onto a prepared PDMS stamp. The stamp is then placed on top of the KMPR microchannels and the SU-8 layer is cross-linked by applying sufficient heat and pressure. After peeling off the PDMS stamp, the SU-8 layer remains bonded on the KMPR. In our experiments, we demonstrate the bonding of approximately 0.5 μm thick structured SU-8 films onto KMPR microchannels of about 500 μm width and 25 μm height. Bond strength tests demonstrated that such thin layers can withstand pressures up to 1100 hPa. The laminated SU-8 layers can enable various functionalities, e.g. sealing of microfluidic channels, realization of air-suspended photonic structures or optofluidic devices. Most importantly, the combination of fluid handling in the microchannels and air-suspended photonic structures realized in the laminated SU-8 layer enables research towards a large range of applications, such as optofluidics, biosensors, chemical and biomedical analysis, environmental investigations, and renewable energy.