Superconducting optoelectronic hardware is being explored as a path towards artificial spiking neural networks with unprecedented scales of complexity and computational ability. Such hardware combines integrated-photonic components for few-photon, light-speed communication with superconducting circuits for fast, energy-efficient computation. Monolithic integration of superconducting and photonic devices is necessary for the scaling of this technology. In the present work, superconducting-nanowire single-photon detectors are monolithically integrated with Josephson junctions for the first time, enabling the realization of superconducting optoelectronic synapses. We present circuits that perform analog weighting and temporal leaky integration of single-photon presynaptic signals. Synaptic weighting is implemented in the electronic domain so that binary, single-photon communication can be maintained. Records of recent synaptic activity are locally stored as current in superconducting loops. Dendritic and neuronal nonlinearities are implemented with a second stage of Josephson circuitry. The hardware presents great design flexibility, with demonstrated synaptic time constants spanning four orders of magnitude (hundreds of nanoseconds to milliseconds). The synapses are responsive to presynaptic spike rates exceeding 10 MHz and consume approximately 33 aJ of dynamic power per synapse event before accounting for cooling. In addition to neuromorphic hardware, these circuits introduce new avenues towards realizing large-scale single-photon-detector arrays for diverse imaging, sensing, and quantum communication applications.

该论文探讨了超导光电硬件作为通往具有前所未有的复杂性和计算能力的人工脉冲神经网络的一种方法，并研究了单光子探测器与约瑟夫森结的单片集成，以实现超导光电突触，并介绍了执行单光子突触前突触信号的模拟加权和时间泄漏积分的电路，响应前突触脉冲速率达10 MHz，耗电量约为33 aJ。

超导光电单光子突触的演示