Conditions for reservoir computing performance using semiconductor lasers with delayed optical feedback

Opt Express. 2017 Feb 6;25(3):2401-2412. doi: 10.1364/OE.25.002401.

Abstract

Photonic implementations of reservoir computing (RC) have been receiving considerable attention due to their excellent performance, hardware, and energy efficiency as well as their speed. Here, we study a particularly attractive all-optical system using optical information injection into a semiconductor laser with delayed feedback. We connect its injection locking, consistency, and memory properties to the RC performance in a non-linear prediction task. We find that for partial injection locking we achieve a good combination of consistency and memory. Therefore, we are able to provide a physical basis identifying operational parameters suitable for prediction.