Optoelectronic and optical device characteristics for VCSEL-based optoelectronic neural networks

We describe the design, construction and successful operation of a 64-neuron optoelectronic Hopfield-type neural network, based around an 8*8 VCSEL array and diffractive free-space optical interconnection. This network is designed to produce near-optimal solutions to a variety of optimisation problems associated with different types of telecommunications switch.