Subwavelength neuromorphic nanophotonic integrated circuits for spike-based computing: challenges and prospects
Bruno Romeira, Jana B. Nieder, Bejoys Jacob, Ricardo M. R. Adão, Filipe Camarneiro, Juan Arturo Alanis, Matéj Hejda, Antonio Hurtado, João Lourenço, David Castro Alves, J. M. L. Figueiredo, Ignacio Ortega, J. Javaloyes · 2021
Event-activated biological-inspired subwavelength (sub-λ) optical neural networks are of paramount importance for energy-efficient and high-bandwidth artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Despite the significant advances to build active optical artificial neurons using for example phase-change materials, lasers, photodetectors, and modulators, miniaturized integrated sources and detectors suited for few-photon spike-based operation and of interest for neuromorphic optical computing are still lacking. In this invited paper we outline the main challenges, opportunities, and recent results towards the development of interconnected neuromorphic nanoscale light-emitting diodes (nanoLEDs) as key-enabling artificial spiking neuron circuits in photonic neural networks. This method of spike generation in neuromorphic nanoLEDs paves the way for sub-λ incoherent neural circuits for fast and efficient asynchronous brain-inspired computation.