Realization of all-optical higher-order spatial differentiators based on cascaded operations

Cascaded operations play an important role in traditional electronic computing systems for the realization of advanced strategies. Here, we introduce the idea of cascaded operations into all-optical spatial analog computing. The single function of the firstorder operation is difficult to meet the requirements of practical applications in image recognition. The all-optical second-order spatial differentiators are implemented by cascading two first-order differential operation units, and the image edge detection of amplitude and phase objects are demonstrated. Our scheme provides a possible pathway towards the development of compact multifunctional differentiators and advanced optical analog computing networks.