Abstract

Photonic neuromorphic engineering has emerged as an alternative computational paradigm that aims at tackling the impediments of typical von Neumann architectures, in addressing complex problems like machine vision and RF cognitive management [1]. Photonic neuron primitives are based on the dynamics of semiconductor lasers and have received attention due to the similarity of their dynamics with that of biological neurons at unprecedented high bandwidth. The ability to realize fully isomorphic photonic neurons that can all optically emulate both excitatory and inhibitory biological neurons by means of injection locking in quantum dot lasers has been demonstrated recently by our group [2]. Here, we shed light on the dynamics of all-optical waveband switching at the inhibitory operating regime. This particular regime can unlock new biomimicing paradigms that are critical for more advanced functions [2]. Inhibitory neurons are activated by excitatory signals (ground state pulses-GS), but contrary to excitatory neurons, start emitting inhibitory spikes that tend to silence neural activity in subsequent neurons (excited state pulses-ES).

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