Small-scale photonic Kolmogorov-Arnold networks using standard telecom nonlinear modules

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Abstract

Photonic neural networks promise ultrafast inference, yet most architectures rely on linear optical meshes with electronic nonlinearities, reintroducing optical-electrical-optical bottlenecks. Here we introduce small-scale photonic Kolmogorov-Arnold networks (SSP-KANs) implemented entirely with standard telecommunications components. Each network edge employs a trainable nonlinear module composed of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, semiconductor optical amplifier, and variable optical attenuators, providing a four-parameter transfer function derived from gain saturation and interferometric mixing. Despite this constrained expressivity, SSP-KANs comprising only a few optical modules achieve strong nonlinear inference performance across classification, regression, and image recognition tasks, approaching software baselines with significantly fewer parameters. A four-module network achieves 98.4\% accuracy on nonlinear classification benchmarks inaccessible to linear models. Performance remains robust under realistic hardware impairments, maintaining high accuracy down to 6-bit input resolution and 14 dB signal-to-noise ratio. By using a fully differentiable physics model for end-to-end optimisation of optical parameters, this work establishes a practical pathway from simulation to experimental demonstration of photonic KANs using commodity telecom hardware.