A conjugate topological photonic crystal (CTPC) is designed to achieve highly efficient optical bistability. By exploiting the conjugate topological edge state supported by the CTPC, the structure exhibits a markedly reduced bistability threshold, reaching the level of a few microwatts per meter in simulations. Meanwhile, the conjugate design enables high transmission, giving the device a clear advantage in high-contrast optical switching applications. Furthermore, we examine its robustness against fabrication-induced structural perturbations and analyze the effects of the incident angle and the number of periods on the bistable behavior. Moreover, the optical bistability is employed as a nonlinear activation function in all-optical neural-network computing, leading to improved accuracy in image-recognition tasks. These results provide important theoretical support for the conjugate topological photonic crystals and demonstrate their promise for developing highly robust, low-power all-optical neural networks.

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• Optical bistability
• Topological metamaterials
• Nonlinear optical materials
• Waveguides