Refractory period of an excitable semiconductor laser with optical   injection
  Injection-locked semiconductor lasers can be brought to a neuron-like excitable regime when parameters are set close to the unlocking transition. Here we study experimentally the response of this system to repeated optical perturbations and observe the existence of a refractory period during which perturbations are not able to elicit an excitable response. The results are analyzed via simulations of a set of dynamical equations which reproduced adequately the experimental results. 
Bruno Garbin, Axel Dolcemascolo, Franco Prati, Julien Javaloyes,   Giovanna Tissoni and St\'ephane Barland
physics.optics