Demonstration of self-spiking neuron behavior in a monolithically integrated two-section laser

An integrated two-section laser with saturable absorber and gain section fabricated in an InP technology platform is analysed. Bistability and a voltage depending self-spiking behaviour are demonstrated. Additional simulations show that the self-spiking behaviour is likely triggered by noise, and that the pulse density can be controlled by the absorber voltage. This makes the proposed device a promising encoder in the input layer of a photonic spiking neural network