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==Misconceptions, challenges, and prospects==
A significant challenge to optical computing is that computation is a [[nonlinear]]{{disambiguation needed|date=April 2024}} process in which multiple signals must interact. Light, which is an [[electromagnetic wave]], can only interact with another electromagnetic wave in the presence of electrons in a material,<ref>{{cite book|isbn=978-0387946597 |author=Philip R. Wallace|title= Paradox Lost: Images of the Quantum|date=1996|publisher=Springer }}</ref> and the strength of this interaction is much weaker for electromagnetic waves, such as light, than for the electronic signals in a conventional computer. This may result in the processing elements for an optical computer requiring more power and larger dimensions than those for a conventional electronic computer using transistors.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}}
A further misconception{{by whom|date=May 2019}} is that since light can travel much faster than the [[drift velocity]] of electrons, and at frequencies measured in [[Terahertz (unit)|THz]], optical transistors should be capable of extremely high frequencies. However, any electromagnetic wave must obey the [[Bandwidth-limited pulse|transform limit]], and therefore the rate at which an optical transistor can respond to a signal is still limited by its [[spectral bandwidth]]. In [[fiber-optic communication]]s, practical limits such as [[dispersion (optics)|dispersion]] often constrain [[Wavelength-division multiplexing|channel]]s to bandwidths of tens of GHz, only slightly better than many silicon transistors. Obtaining dramatically faster operation than electronic transistors would therefore require practical methods of transmitting [[ultrashort pulse]]s down highly dispersive waveguides.
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