title: Relative refractory period in an excitable semiconductor laser.
abstract: We report on experimental evidence of neuronlike excitable behavior in a micropillar laser with saturable absorber. We show that under a single pulsed perturbation the system exhibits subnanosecond response pulses and analyze the role of the laser bias pumping. Under a double pulsed excitation we study the absolute and relative refractory periods, similarly to what can be found in neural excitability, and interpret the results in terms of a dynamical inhibition mediated by the carrier dynamics. These measurements shed light on the analogy between optical and biological neurons and pave the way to fast spike-time coding based optical systems with a speed several orders of magnitude faster than their biological or electronic counterparts.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures, LPN-CNRS UPR20, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Selmi
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures, LPN-CNRS UPR20, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Braive
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures, LPN-CNRS UPR20, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Beaudoin
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures, LPN-CNRS UPR20, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sagnes
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures, LPN-CNRS UPR20, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kuszelewicz
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures, LPN-CNRS UPR20, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barbay
mesh_terms: D007834:Lasers; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012666:Semiconductors