Progress on the analysis of laser-based photonic neurons

Optical approaches for emulating the brain´s powerful computational capabilities have recently emerged as they offer promise for ultra-fast operation timescales (up to 9 orders of magnitude faster than biological neurons). In this talk, we will review our approach for optical neurons based upon different types of semiconductor lasers (SLs). We will show the emulation of a wide range of neuronal features, such as spiking, bursting, inhibition, etc., but on a much faster time-scale than biological neurons. The particular attributes of SLs and the simple experimental configuration used offer prospects of ultrafast and reconfigurable elements for future neuro-inspired information processing modules.