Low-threshold all-optical nonlinear activation function based on injection locking in distributed feedback laser diode

作者：Binshuo Liu, Shaofu Xu, Bowen Ma, Sicheng Yi, and Weiwen Zou*
摘要：We experimentally demonstrate an all-optical nonlinear activation unit based on injection-locking effect of distributed feedback laser diodes (DFB-LDs). The nonlinear carrier dynamics in the unit generates a low-threshold nonlinear activation function with optimized operating conditions. The unit can operate at a low threshold of -15.86 dBm and a high speed of 1 GHz, making it competitive among existing optical nonlinear activation approaches. We apply the unit to a neural network task of solving the second-order ordinary differential equation. The fitting error is as low as 0.0034, verifying the feasibility of our optical nonlinear activation approach. Given that the large-scale fan-out of optical neural networks (ONNs) will significantly reduce optical power in one channel, our low-threshold scheme is suitable for the development of high-throughput ONNs.
出版源：Optics Letters
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