Neuromorphic dynamics with optically injected quantum dot lasers

Optically injected quantum dot lasers display many unique nonlinear phenomena and are in particular, excellent testbeds for different forms of excitability. We analyse the recent discovery of Type II excitability in such devices. An optothermal instability leads to the phenomenon and while an underlying Hopf bifurcation is ultimately responsible for the observation, intriguingly there are two potential routes: One via a subcritical bifurcation and an associated bistable region and the other via a supercritical bifurcation and an associated canard explosion.