Optical systems have recently emerged as promising platforms for energy efficient computing. However, fundamental limits to their information processing are largely unknown. In this project, you will address this problem by experimentally quantifying energy costs for two of the most fundamental operations, namely switching and erasing an optical bit. The system you will experiment with is a state-of-the-art tunable micro-cavity in a closed-cycle cryostat. You will control the switching/erasing process by varying the laser power and/or the cavity length. Beyond quantifying energy costs, you will seek to understand fundamental trade-offs between energy efficiency, speed, and accuracy in optical operations. You will also develop methods to increase the optical nonlinearity of the system, in order to reach the quantum regime. After succeeding in this, you will assess whether and how quantum effects can modify any of the results you previously obtained. Your main focus will be on experiments, but you will closely collaborate with Christopher Jarzynski and a PhD student in his group at the University of Maryland. Together, you will develop a stochastic thermodynamic framework for optical systems across the semiclassical to quantum transition.