arXiv subjects

Sylvain Barbay

Publications and source records attributed to Sylvain Barbay.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Integrated nano electro-optomechanical spiking neuron

Neuromorphic computing offers a pathway toward energy-efficient processing of data, yet hardware platforms combining nanoscale integration and multimodal functionality remain scarce. Here we demonstrate a gallium-phosphide electro-optomechanical spiking neuron that integrates optical and electromechanical interfaces within a single nanostructure on a silicon photonic chip operating at telecommunication wavelengths (1550 nm) and exploiting a 3 gigahertz-frequency mechanical mode. Our device displays excitable dynamics, generating optical spikes at its output, as in the spiking activity of neurons and cardiac cells and defined by the calibrated all-or-none response to external perturbations. This dynamic is consistent with the saddle-node on invariant circle scenario and associated features are demonstrated including control of excitable threshold, temporal summation and refractory period. Our device compact footprint and its CMOS-compatible platform make it well suited for edge-computing applications requiring low latency and establish a foundation for versatile brain-inspired optomechanical computing and advanced on-chip optical pulse sources.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Strongly resonant polarization dynamics of pulse trains in a spin-flip model for an excitable microlaser with delayed self-feedback

Motivated by recent experimental observations concerning the polarization dynamics in an excitable microlaser with saturable absorber coupled to an external feedback mirror reported in [Ruschel et al. (2025) Opt. Lett. 50 (8) 2618], we propose here an in-depth theoretical investigation of the locked dynamics of regenerative vectorial pulse trains that this system produces. We perform a numerical bifurcation analysis of self-sustained pulse trains of a corresponding spin-flip model with delayed feedback. Its focus is on strongly resonant regimes, where the modulation of the peak intensities of polarized regenerative pulse trains locks to 2, 3 and 4 times the pulse regeneration time. Specifically, we identify points of strongly resonant rotation numbers on curves of torus bifurcations in the parameter plane of the amplitude and phase anisotropy parameters, and continue emerging curves of fold and period-doubling bifurcations to identify locking regions. In this way, we clarify where pulse trains show strongly resonant polarization dynamics and highlight that even weak polarization coupling in delay-coupled microlasers creates considerable dynamical richness. These results may have impact on the design of future coupled microlasers systems for neuroinspired on-chip computing, where the polarization of an excitable pulse can be used to encode or process information.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Roadmap on Neuromorphic Photonics

This roadmap consolidates recent advances while exploring emerging applications, reflecting the remarkable diversity of hardware platforms, neuromorphic concepts, and implementation philosophies reported in the field. It emphasizes the critical role of cross-disciplinary collaboration in this rapidly evolving field.

cs.ET↗

arXiv2024

Regenerative vectorial breathers in a delay-coupled neuromorphic microlaser with integrated saturable absorber

We report on the polarization dynamics of regenerative light pulses in a micropillar laser with integrated saturable absorber coupled to an external feedback mirror. The delayed self-coupled microlaser is operated in the excitable regime, where it regenerates incident pulses with a supra-threshold intensity -- resulting in a pulse train with inter-pulse period approximately given by the feedback delay time, in analogy with a self-coupled biological neuron. We report the experimental observation of vectorial breathers in polarization angle, manifesting themselves as a modulation of the linear polarized intensity components without significant modulation of the total intensity. Numerical analysis of a suitable model reveals that the observed polarization mode competition is a consequence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations induced by polarization anisotropy. Our model reproduces well the observed experimental results and predicts different regimes as a function of the polarization anisotropy parameters and the pump parameter. We believe that these findings are relevant for the fabrication of flexible sources of polarized pulses with controlled properties, as well as for neuroinspired on-chip computing applications, where the polarization may be used to encode or process information in novel ways.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Merging and disconnecting resonance tongues in a pulsing excitable microlaser with delayed optical feedback

Excitability, encountered in numerous fields from biology to neurosciences and optics, is a general phenomenon characterized by an all-or-none response of a system to an external perturbation. When subject to delayed feedback, excitable systems can sustain multistable pulsing regimes, which are either regular or irregular time sequences of pulses reappearing every delay time. Here, we investigate an excitable microlaser subject to delayed optical feedback and study the emergence of complex pulsing dynamics, including periodic, quasiperiodic and irregular pulsing regimes. This work is motivated by experimental observations showing these different types of pulsing dynamics. A suitable mathematical model, written as a system of delay differential equations, is investigated through an in-depth bifurcation analysis. We demonstrate that resonance tongues play a key role in the emergence of complex dynamics, including non-equidistant periodic pulsing solutions and chaotic pulsing. The structure of resonance tongues is shown to depend very sensitively on the pump parameter. Successive saddle transitions of bounding saddle-node bifurcations constitute a merging process that results in unexpectedly large locking regions, which subsequently disconnect from the relevant torus bifurcation curve; the existence of such unconnected regions of periodic pulsing is in excellent agreement with experimental observations. As we show, the transition to unconnected resonance regions is due to a general mechanism: the interaction of resonance tongues locally at an extremum of the rotation number on a torus bifurcation curve. We present and illustrate the two generic cases of disconnecting and of disappearing resonance tongues. Moreover, we show how a maximum and a minimum of the rotation number appears naturally when two torus bifurcation curves undergo a saddle transition (where they connect differently).

math.DS↗

arXiv2022

Random number generation with a chaotic electromechanical resonator

Chaos enables the emergence of randomness in deterministic physical systems. Therefore it can be exploited for the conception of true random number generators (RNG) mandatory in classical cryptography applications. Meanwhile, nanomechanical oscillators, at the core of many on-board functionalities such as sensing, reveal as excellent candidates to behave chaotically. This is made possible thanks to intrinsic mechanical nonlinearities emerging at the nanoscale. Here we present a platform gathering a nanomechanical oscillator and its integrated capacitive actuation. Using a modulation of the resonant force induced by the electrodes, we demonstrate chaotic dynamics and study how it depends on the dissipation of the system. The randomness of a binary sequence generated from a chaotic time trace is evaluated and discussed such that the generic parameters enabling successful random number generation can be established. This demonstration makes use of concepts which are sufficiently general to be applied to the next generation of nano-electro-optomechanical systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Vibrational resonance amplification in a thermo-optic optomechanical nanocavity

Vibrational resonance amplifies a weak low-frequency signal by use of an additional non-resonant high-frequency modulation. The realization of weak signal enhancement in integrated nonlinear optical nanocavities is of great interest for nanophotonic applications where optical signals may be of low power. Here, we report experimental observation of vibrational resonance in a thermo-optically bistable photonic crystal optomechanical resonator with an amplification up to +16 dB. The characterization of the bistability can interestingly be done using a mechanical resonance of the membrane, which is submitted to a strong thermo-elastic coupling with the cavity.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Pulse-timing symmetry breaking in an excitable optical system with delay

Excitable systems with delayed feedback are important in areas from biology to neuroscience and optics. They sustain multistable pulsing regimes with different number of equidistant pulses in the feedback loop. Experimentally and theoretically, we report on the pulse-timing symmetry breaking of these regimes in an optical system. A bifurcation analysis unveils that this originates in a resonance phenomenon and that symmetry-broken states are stable in large regions of the parameter space. These results have impact in photonics for e.g. optical computing and versatile sources of optical pulses.

nlin.PS↗

arXiv2020

Bichromatic synchronized chaos in coupled optomechanical nanoresonators

Synchronization and chaos are two well known and ubiquitous phenomena in nature. Interestingly, under specific conditions, coupled chaotic systems can display synchronization in some of their observables. Here, we experimentally investigate bichromatic synchronization on the route to chaos of two non-identical mechanically coupled optomechanical nanocavities. Electromechanical near-resonant excitation of one of the resonators evidences hysteretic behaviors of the coupled mechanical modes which can, under amplitude modulation, reach the chaotic regime. The observations, allowing to measure directly the full phase space of the system, are accurately modeled by coupled periodically forced Duffing resonators thanks to a complete calibration of the experimental parameters. This shows that, besides chaos transfer from the mechanical to the optical frequency domain, spatial chaos transfer between the two nonidentical subsystems occurs. Upon simultaneous excitations of the coupled membranes modes, we also demonstrate bichromatic chaos synchronization between quadratures at the two distinct carrier frequencies of the normal modes. Their respective quadrature amplitudes are consistently synchronized thanks to the modal orthogonality breaking induced by the nonlinearity. Meanwhile, their phases show complex dynamics with imperfect synchronization in the chaotic regime. Our generic model agrees again quantitatively with the observed synchronization dynamics. These results set the ground for the experimental study of yet unexplored collective dynamics of e.g synchronization in arrays of strongly coupled, nanoscale nonlinear oscillators for applications ranging from precise measurements to multispectral chaotic encryption and random bit generation, and to analog computing, to mention a few.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2019

Weak signal enhancement by non-linear resonance control in a forced nano-electromechanical resonator

Driven non-linear resonators can display sharp resonances or even multistable behaviours amenable to induce strong enhancements of weak signals. Such enhancements can make use of the phenomenon of vibrational resonance whereby a weak low-frequency signal applied to a bistable resonator can be amplified by driving the non-linear oscillator with another appropriately-adjusted non-resonant high-frequency field. Here we demonstrate the resonant enhancement of a weak signal by use of a vibrational force yet in a monostable system consisting of a driven nano-electromechanical nonlinear resonator. The oscillator is subjected to a strong quasi-resonant drive and to two additional tones: a weak signal at lower frequency and a non-resonant driving at an intermediate frequency. We show experimentally and theoretically a significant enhancement of the weak signal thanks to the occurence of vibrational resonance enabled by the presence of the intermediate frequency driving. We analyse this phenomenon in terms of coherent nonlinear resonance manipulation. Our results illustrate a general mechanism which may have applications in the fields of radio-frequency signal processing or sensing for instance.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

Equalization of pulse timings in an excitable microlaser system with delay

An excitable semiconductor micropillar laser with delayed optical feedback is able to regenerate pulses by the excitable response of the laser. It has been shown that almost any pulse sequence can, in principle, be excited and regenerated by this system over short periods of time. We show experimentally and numerically that this is not true anymore in the long term: rather, the system settles down to a stable periodic orbit with equalized timing between pulses. Several such attracting periodic regimes with different numbers of equalized pulse timing may coexist and we study how they can be accessed with single external optical pulses of sufficient strength that need to be timed appropriately. Since the observed timing equalization and switching characteristics are generated by excitability in combination with delayed feedback, our results will be of relevance beyond the particular case of photonics, especially in neuroscience.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Phase Stochastic Resonance in a forced nano-electromechanical oscillator

Stochastic resonance is a general phenomenon usually observed in one-dimensional, amplitude modulated, bistable systems.We show experimentally the emergence of phase stochastic resonance in the bidimensional response of a forced nano-electromechanical membrane by evidencing the enhancement of a weak phase modulated signal thanks to the addition of phase noise. Based on a general forced Duffing oscillator model, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that phase noise acts multiplicatively inducing important physical consequences. These results may open interesting prospects for phase noise metrology or coherent signal transmission applications in nanomechanical oscillators. Moreover, our approach, due to its general character, may apply to various systems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Spatiotemporal chaos induces extreme events in an extended microcavity laser

Extreme events such as rogue wave in optics and fluids are often associated with the merging dynamics of coherent structures. We present experimental and numerical results on the physics of extreme events appearance in a spatially extended semiconductor microcavity laser with intracavity saturable absorber. This system can display deterministic irregular dynamics only thanks to spatial coupling through diffraction of light. We have identified parameter regions where extreme events are encountered and established the origin of this dynamics in the emergence of deterministic spatiotemporal chaos, through the correspondence between the proportion of extreme events and the dimension of the strange attractor.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2015

Temporal summation in a neuromimetic micropillar laser

Neuromimetic systems are systems mimicking the functionalities orarchitecture of biological neurons and may present an alternativepath for efficient computing and information processing. We demonstratehere experimentally temporal summation in a neuromimetic micropillarlaser with integrated saturable absorber. Temporal summation is theproperty of neurons to integrate delayed input stimuli and to respondby an all-or-none kind of response if the inputs arrive in a sufficientlysmall time window. Our system alone may act as a fast optical coincidence detector and paves the way to fast photonic spike processing networks.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2008

Transient chirp in high speed photonic crystal quantum dots lasers with controlled spontaneous emission

We report on a series of experiments on the dynamics of spontaneous emission controlled nanolasers. The laser cavity is a photonic crystal slab cavity, embedding self-assembled quantum dots as gain material. The implementation of cavity electrodynamics effects increases significantly the large signal modulation bandwidth, with measured modulation speeds of the order of 10 GHz while keeping an extinction ratio of 19 dB. A linear transient wavelength shift is reported, corresponding to a chirp of less than 100 pm for a 35-ps laser pulse. We observe that the chirp characteristics are independent of the repetition rate of the laser up to 10 GHz.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Optical bistability in a GaAs based polariton diode

We report on a new type of optical nonlinearity in a polariton p-i-n microcavity. Abrupt switching between the strong and weak coupling regime is induced by controlling the electric field within the cavity. As a consequence bistable cycles are observed for low optical powers (2-3 orders of magnitude less than for Kerr induced bistability). Signatures of switching fronts propagating through the whole 300 microns x 300 microns mesa surface are evidenced.

cond-mat.other↗