Engineering nonlinear activation functions for all-optical neural networks via quantum interference

All-optical neural networks (AONNs) promise transformative gains in speed and energy efficiency for artificial intelligence (AI) by leveraging light's intrinsic parallelism and wave nature. However, their scalability has been fundamentally limited by the high power requirements of conventional nonlinear optical elements. Here, we present a low-power nonlinear activation scheme based on a three-level quantum system driven by dual laser fields. This platform introduces a two-channel nonlinear activation matrix with self- and cross-nonlinearities, enabling true multi-input, multi-output optical processing. The system supports tunable activation behaviors, including sigmoid and ReLU functions, at ultralow power levels (17 <i>μ</i>W per neuron). We validate our approach through theoretical modeling and experimental demonstration in rubidium vapor cells, showing the feasibility of scaling to deep AONNs with millions of neurons operating under 20 W of total optical power. Crucially, we demonstrate the all-optical generation of gradient-like signals with backpropagation, paving the way for all-optical training. These results mark a significant advance toward scalable, high-speed, and energy-efficient optical AI hardware.