Electrically Controlled Neuron-Like Spiking Regimes in Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers at Ultrafast Rates

We report experimentally on the electrically controlled, tunable, and repeatable neuron-like spiking regimes generated in an optically injected vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) operating at the telecom wavelength of 1300 nm. These fast spiking dynamics (obtained at sub-nanosecond speed rates) demonstrate different behaviors observed in biological neurons such as thresholding, phasic and tonic spiking, and spike rate and spike latency coding. The spiking regimes are activated in response to external stimuli (with controlled strengths and temporal duration) encoded in the bias current applied to a VCSEL subject to continuous wave optical injection. These results reveal the prospect for fast (>7 orders of magnitude faster than neurons), novel, electrically controlled spiking photonic modules for future neuromorphic computing platforms.