A GaAs/AlAs planar cavity containing a collection of InAs quantum boxes in its core region has been grown in a single step by molecular beam epitaxy, and processed by electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching into pillar microresonators. The optical study by photoluminescence of these localized light emitters allows a systematic and precise determination of the energies of the first confined photon modes of such microstructures, in good agreement with theoretical estimates. More generally, such probes facilitate the experimental study of the modes of complex photonic microstructures and of the spontaneous emission alteration they entail on a quasimonochromatic light emitter.
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.
We show that a monolithic and compact vertical cavity laser with intracavity saturable absorber can emit short excitable pulses. These calibrated optical pulses can be excited as a response to an input perturbation whose amplitude is above a certain threshold. Subnanosecond excitable response is promising for applications to novel all-optical devices for information processing or logical gates.
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