Excitability in optically injected microdisk lasers with phase controlled excitatory and inhibitory response

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Neuroscience
• Computer Science

Background:

• Artificial neurons are crucial for machine learning.
• Optical computing offers high speed and low power consumption.
• Microdisk lasers are compact and efficient light sources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate class I excitability in optically injected microdisk lasers.
• To propose a novel optical spiking neuron design.
• To analyze the neuron's behavior and potential applications.

Main Methods:

• Optically injecting microdisk lasers.
• Analyzing the input-output rate dependency.
• Investigating the influence of optical phase on neuron response.

Main Results:

• Class I excitability was demonstrated in microdisk lasers.
• The proposed neuron exhibits threshold and integrating behavior.
• Output rate-input rate dependency mimics sigmoidal artificial neurons.
• Optical phase influences neuron response, enabling excitatory and inhibitory perturbations.

Conclusions:

• The study presents a viable optical spiking neuron design.
• This design shows promise for neuromorphic computing and optical signal processing.
• The control over excitatory and inhibitory responses opens new avenues for optical neural networks.