All-optical synaptic neuron based on add-drop microring resonator with power-tunable auxiliary light

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Neuromorphic Engineering
• Optical Computing

Background:

• Neuromorphic systems aim to mimic the human brain's efficiency.
• Existing systems often require complex electronic components.
• Optical approaches offer potential for high speed and low power consumption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate an all-optical synaptic neuron.
• To investigate dual neural dynamics (spiking and plasticity) in passive microring resonators.
• To develop a novel photonic neuromorphic system using only passive optical devices.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing an add-drop microring resonator (ADMRR) with power-tunable auxiliary light.
• Injecting two beams of opposite-direction continuous light into the ADMRR.
• Leveraging nonlinear effects triggered by perturbation pulses for neural spike generation.
• Designing a cascaded ADMRR system for real-time weighting operations.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated flexible generation of linear-tunable, single-wavelength neural spikes.
• Achieved dual neural dynamics, including spiking response and synaptic plasticity.
• Implemented a real-time weighting operation system using cascaded ADMRRs.
• Showcased the system's capability for multi-wavelength operations.

Conclusions:

• An all-optical synaptic neuron based on ADMRRs is proposed and demonstrated.
• The system exhibits tunable neural dynamics and synaptic plasticity.
• This work presents a novel, passive-device-based approach for integrated photonic neuromorphic systems.