Multichannel optical correlator/convolver utilizing the magnetooptic spatial light modulator.

We describe a multichannel correlator/convolver architecture utilizing an acoustooptic light modulator for the 1-D input channel and a magnetooptic spatial light modulator (MOSLM) for the second 2-D parallel channel. The MOSLM allows greater parallelism to be implemented into this correlator/convolver design than was previously reported. We demonstrate the implementation of 24 parallel channels with a 48 x 48 device. We present experimental data and discuss ways of increasing the number of parallel channels using commercially available MOSLMs and other previously discussed techniques such as frequency multiplexing. We show that over 2000 parallel channels are possible at 32-bit accuracy. A technique for obtaining a limited gray scale is also discussed.