ELECTRO-HOLOGRAPHIC ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

A new approach for implementing artificial neural networks (ANNs), based on a novel concept in volume holographic storage - electroholography (EH) - is described. EH is based on the use of paraelectric photorefractive crystals in which the photorefractive mechanism is created in the paraelectric phase. Thus the quadratic electrooptic effect is used to transform the information carrying space charge fields into birefringence gratings, and therefore the diffraction efficiency is governed by an external electric field. This principle enables the construction of a page oriented architecture in which each neuron is implemented as a local electronic circuit, governing the diffraction efficiency of a small volume hologram representing the axon of the neuron. The EH approach is expected to enable the construction of networks with 10(5)-10(6) neurons, each with 10(3)-10(4) synapses.