Effects of modulation in the complex dynamics of a semiconductor laser with feedback

Semiconductor lasers under external perturbations can manifest a broad variety of complex dynamics in their output power, from periodicity to high dimensional chaos. One of their characteristic behaviors, when submitted to optical feedback, is their excitability. These optical excitable devices, that mimic neuronal behavior, can serve as building-blocks for novel, brain-inspired information processing systems. Neuronal systems represent and process the information of a weak external input through correlated electrical spikes. Semiconductor lasers with low to moderate optical feedback, i.e. in the low frequency fluctuations (LFF) regime, display optical spikes with intrinsic temporal correlations, similar to those of biological neurons. Here we study the laser optical spiking dynamics under the influence of direct pump current modulation, focusing on the influence of the modulation frequency and amplitude. We characterize time correlations in the sequence of optical spikes by using symbolic ordinal analysis. This powerful tool allows detecting symbolic patterns in the laser output, and to quantify the effect of the frequency and amplitude of the modulation on the patterns probabilities. The experimental results are in good qualitative agreement with simulations of the Lang and Kobayashi model.

[1]  R. Salathé,et al.  External-cavity-induced nonlinearities in the light versus current characteristic of (Ga,Al)As continuous-wave diode lasers , 1977 .

[2]  Peter Kulchyski.  and , 2015 .

[3]  M Giudici,et al.  Control of excitable pulses in an injection-locked semiconductor laser. , 2013, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[4]  J. Danckaert,et al.  Solitary and coupled semiconductor ring lasers as optical spiking neurons. , 2011, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[5]  B. Pompe,et al.  Permutation entropy: a natural complexity measure for time series. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[6]  M. C. Soriano,et al.  Complex photonics: Dynamics and applications of delay-coupled semiconductors lasers , 2013 .

[7]  Cristina Masoller,et al.  Experimental and numerical study of the symbolic dynamics of a modulated external-cavity semiconductor laser. , 2014, Optics express.

[8]  Effect of Spontaneous Emission Noise and Modulation on Semiconductor Lasers Near Threshold with Optical Feedback , 2003 .

[9]  Massimiliano Zanin,et al.  Permutation Entropy and Its Main Biomedical and Econophysics Applications: A Review , 2012, Entropy.

[10]  Paul R. Prucnal,et al.  Spike processing with a graphene excitable laser , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[11]  M. C. Soriano,et al.  Time Scales of a Chaotic Semiconductor Laser With Optical Feedback Under the Lens of a Permutation Information Analysis , 2011, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[12]  Thomas Ferreira de Lima,et al.  Excitable laser processing network node in hybrid silicon: analysis and simulation. , 2015, Optics express.

[13]  P. R. Prucnal,et al.  A Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Laser Neuron for Ultrafast Cognitive Computing , 2013, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[14]  Antonio Hurtado,et al.  Controllable spiking patterns in long-wavelength vertical cavity surface emitting lasers for neuromorphic photonics systems , 2015, 1507.08176.

[15]  Cristina Masoller,et al.  Unveiling the complex organization of recurrent patterns in spiking dynamical systems , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[16]  Cristina Masoller,et al.  Effects of periodic forcing on the temporally correlated spikes of a semiconductor laser with feedback. , 2015, Optics express.

[17]  R Kuszelewicz,et al.  Relative refractory period in an excitable semiconductor laser. , 2014, Physical review letters.

[18]  Antonio Hurtado,et al.  Investigation of vertical cavity surface emitting laser dynamics for neuromorphic photonic systems , 2012 .

[19]  D. Gauthier,et al.  Entraining power-dropout events in an external-cavity semiconductor laser using weak modulation of the injection current , 2000, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[20]  Eugene M. Izhikevich,et al.  Dynamical Systems in Neuroscience: The Geometry of Excitability and Bursting , 2006 .