Refractory times for excitable dual state quantum dot laser neurons

Abstract

Excitable photonic systems show promise for ultrafast analog computation, several orders of magnitude faster than biological neurons. Optically injected quantum dot lasers display several excitable mechanisms with dual state quantum lasers recently emerging as true all or none excitable artificial neurons. For use in applications, deterministic triggering is necessary and this has previously been demonstrated in the literature. In this work we analyse the crucially important \emph{refractory time} for this dual state system, which defines the minimum possible time between distinct pulses in any excitable pulse train. Ultrashort times on the order of 1~ns are obtained suggesting potential use where ultrafast analog computing is desired.