Enabling scalable optical computing in synthetic frequency dimension using integrated cavity acousto-optics

Optical computing with integrated photonics brings a pivotal paradigm shift to data-intensive computing technologies. However, the scaling of on-chip photonic architectures using spatially distributed schemes faces the challenge imposed by the fundamental limit of integration density. Synthetic dimensions of light offer the opportunity to extend the length of operand vectors within a single photonic component. Here, we show that large-scale, complex-valued matrix-vector multiplications on synthetic frequency lattices can be performed using an ultra-efficient, silicon-based nanophotonic cavity acousto-optic modulator. By harnessing the resonantly enhanced strong electro-optomechanical coupling, we achieve, in a single such modulator, the full-range phase-coherent frequency conversions across the entire synthetic lattice, which constitute a fully connected linear computing layer. Our demonstrations open up the route toward the experimental realizations of frequency-domain integrated optical computing systems simultaneously featuring very large-scale data processing and small device footprints. Synthetic frequency dimension from light modulation enables scalable optical computing. The authors show an efficient silicon-based acousto-optic modulator that generates large synthetic frequency lattices and performs matrix-vector multiplications.