Paper ID: 2206.11044

Artificial optoelectronic spiking neuron based on a resonant tunnelling diode coupled to a vertical cavity surface emitting laser

Matěj Hejda, Ekaterina Malysheva, Dafydd Owen-Newns, Qusay Raghib Ali Al-Taai, Weikang Zhang, Ignacio Ortega-Piwonka, Julien Javaloyes, Edward Wasige, Victor Dolores-Calzadilla, José M. L. Figueiredo, Bruno Romeira, Antonio Hurtado

Excitable optoelectronic devices represent one of the key building blocks for implementation of artificial spiking neurons in neuromorphic (brain-inspired) photonic systems. This work introduces and experimentally investigates an opto-electro-optical (O/E/O) artificial neuron built with a resonant tunnelling diode (RTD) coupled to a photodetector as a receiver and a vertical cavity surface emitting laser as a the transmitter. We demonstrate a well defined excitability threshold, above which this neuron produces 100 ns optical spiking responses with characteristic neural-like refractory period. We utilise its fan-in capability to perform in-device coincidence detection (logical AND) and exclusive logical OR (XOR) tasks. These results provide first experimental validation of deterministic triggering and tasks in an RTD-based spiking optoelectronic neuron with both input and output optical (I/O) terminals. Furthermore, we also investigate in theory the prospects of the proposed system for its nanophotonic implementation with a monolithic design combining a nanoscale RTD element and a nanolaser; therefore demonstrating the potential of integrated RTD-based excitable nodes for low footprint, high-speed optoelectronic spiking neurons in future neuromorphic photonic hardware.

Submitted: Jun 22, 2022