Machine Intelligence for Materials Science

This book delves into optics and photonic materials, describing the development of an intelligent all-optical system capable of replicating the functional building blocks of the biological brain. Starting with an analysis of biological neuronal dynamics and traversing the state of the art of neuromorphic systems developed to date, the book arrives at a description of neural networks realized through spatial soliton technology.

After a brief introduction to the biology of neural networks (Chapter 1), the book delves into the description of the neuromorphic problem emphasizing the peculiarities of optical hardware developed to date. (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 is dedicated to the description of psychomemories , which represent the modeling of human learning according to the theories of modern neuro-psychology. This chapter provides the prerequisites for understanding how solitonic neural networks (SNNs) are able to learn and how they approach biological models. Chapter 4 focuses on the experimentation of solitonic optic neurons in thin layers of lithium niobate. Optical techniques for supervised and unsupervised learning are discussed. The entire chapter is accompanied by theoretical, simulative and experimental results. This chapter explains how an X-junction neuron is able to establish synapses, modify them, or erase them. The erasure of solitonic structures represents an important innovation in the field of nonlinear optics.  Finally, Chapter 5 reports on the implementation of a network of neurons capable of processing information and storing it exactly as a human episodic memory does. The chapter ends with a number of insights into the lines of research that are currently being pursued on the basis of the results obtained.

The book is meant for graduate students and researchers in the fields of optics, photonic applications, and biology. However, the main beneficiaries of this book are senior researchers in the field of nonlinear optics and artificial intelligence. To fully understand the results, it is important to have a basic knowledge of optical physics and neuron biology.