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Excitable pulses are one of the necessary building blocks in achieving a functional neuromorphic photonic system. Many different semiconductor devices have been arranged in various configurations to produce excitable pulses [1]. Of these, Quantum Dot (QD) lasers in a unidirectional optical injection set-up are great candidates for future applications. The optically injected QD laser is shown to be a truly unique set up producing a plethora of different non linear dynamics, many of which are potentially useful in neuromorphic applications. In particular, there are several different excitable regimes: Both Type I [2] and Type II excitability [3] can be produced. In fact, both types are produced with exactly the same master-slave configuration. By simply adjusting the control parameters only — injection strength and detuning — it is easy to navigate between these two types of excitability.

Quantum dot (QD) lasers display the unique ability to lase from multiple energy states [1]. Depending on pump current a QD laser can lase from the ground state (GS), from the first excited state (ES), or simultaneously from both. Although a lot of work has been done investigating the neuromorphic dynamics for the GS state, very little has been done involving the ES. In [2] antiphase ES and GS bursting intensity oscillations were reported while in [3], a novel Type I dual state excitable dynamic was reported. Here we show that we can controllably produce GS dark pulses and an associated ES bright pulse using sufficiently large perturbations to deterministically trigger them. We also identify and show techniques that can be used to control the number of spikes in the bursts and the refractory time in the dual state excitability.