Enhancing optical-feedback-induced chaotic dynamics in semiconductor ring lasers via optical injection

Concealment of time delay signature of chaotic output in a slave semiconductor laser with chaos laser injection

The isochronous cluster synchronization with time delay (TD) signature suppression in delay-coupled vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) networks subject to variable-polarization optical injection (VPOI) is theoretically and numerically studied. Based on the inherent symmetries of network topology, parameter spaces for stable cluster synchronization are presented, and zero-lag synchronization are achieved for VCSELs in same clusters. Additionally, the TD signature reduction for the dynamics of VCSELs in the stable clusters are systematically discussed. It is shown that both moderate polarizer angle and frequency detuning between different clusters have strengthen the effect of TD signature suppression. Moreover, the isochronous cluster synchronization with TD signature concealment is also verified in another VPOI-VCSEL network with different topology, indicating the generality of proposed results. Our results shed a new light on the research of chaos synchronization and chaos-based secure communications in VCSEL networks.

We demonstrate that a semiconductor laser perturbed by distributed feedback with random time delays from a large number of scattering centers along a fiber random grating can emit light chaotically without the time-delay signature (TDS). A theoretical model is developed based on the modified Lang-Kobayashi model to numerically explore the chaotic dynamics of the laser diode subjected to random feedback. It is predicted that the random distributed feedback destroys the phase-correlated mode condition and hence suppresses the TDS. The fiber random grating is fabricated with random index modulation periods through point-by-point inscription, which introduces large numbers of phase-uncorrelated cavity modes into the semiconductor laser, leading to high dimensional chaotic dynamics and thus the concealment of the TDS. The experimentally obtained TDS value is negligible with a minimum of 0.0088, which is the smallest to date.

Numerical study of the time-delay signature in chaos optical injection system with phase-conjugate feedback

A simple schemefor generating chaotic signals with concealed time-delay signature (TDS) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The architecture of the system is based on a semiconductor laser (SL) under multi-path optical feedback (MPOF) provided by a 2 × 2 fiber coupler (FC) and a fiber mirror (FM). The results show that SLs with MPOF are more beneficial for achieving TDS suppressed chaotic output than those with single optical feedback (SOF) systems. In addition, the TDS of the chaotic signal generated by the SL under MPOF is insensitive to the length deviation of the feedback cavities, and therefore such a scheme is convenient for practical application. Furthermore, the influence of FC coupling ratio in the MPOF module, feedback strength, and bias current of the SL on the TDS is comprehensively studied. By selecting suitable parameters, the TDS of the chaotic signal generated by the SL under MPOF can be completely concealed. Finally, permutation entropy (PE) is adopted to evaluate the complexity of the generated chaotic signal, and the result demonstrates that the suppression of TDS does not lead to the degradation of complexity for the proposed scheme.

We numerically investigate the time delay signature (TDS) properties of a chaotic semiconductor laser subject to nonlinearly-modulated feedback. In the proposed scheme, two semiconductor lasers that play the role of a built-in nonlinear modulator is positioned in the external cavity of the chaos generator laser, which forms a structure of semiconductor laser ring. The simulation results show that the TDS of the chaos generator in the laser ring is quite smaller than that of the chaos induced by the conventional optical feedback. Moreover, the TDS embedded in the intensity and phase time-series of the chaotic signal can be further concealed, by introducing an additional optical feedback into the built-in nonlinear modulator.

To quantitatively evaluate the time-delay (TD) signatures of chaotic signals generated by vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with polarization-rotated optical feedback (PROF), we propose four cases of resolution coefficients R based on correlation functions. The resolution coefficient characteristics for the x-polarization (XP) mode, y-polarization (YP) mode and the total output are considered. The dependences of R on the feedback strength and feedback delay are discussed and compared carefully. The two-dimensional maps of R show that the TD signatures for the single polarization mode (i.e., XP or YP mode) are much more difficult to retrieve than those for the total output in the entire parameter space. Thus, by using single polarization mode as a chaotic carrier, the TD signatures are extremely difficult to be identified, which contributes a lot in the security-enhanced VCSELs-based chaotic optical communication systems.

Chaotic emission of a semiconductor laser is investigated through propagation over a fiber for achieving broadening of the bandwidth and suppression of the time-delay signature (TDS). Subject to delayed optical feedback, the laser first generates chaos with a limited bandwidth and an undesirable TDS. The laser emission is then delivered over a standard single-mode fiber for experiencing self-phase modulation, together with anomalous group-velocity dispersion, which leads to the broadening of the optical bandwidth and suppression of the TDS in the intensity signal. The effects are enhanced as the input power launched to the fiber increases. By experimentally launching up to 340mW into a 20km fiber, the TDS is suppressed by 10 times to below 0.04, while the bandwidth is broadened by six times to above 100GHz. The improvement of the chaotic signal is potentially useful in random bit generation and range detection applications.

Time-delay signature (TDS) and effective bandwidth (EBW) are two key performance indexes to evaluate a chaos signal generated by a laser system including delay-time feedback. In this paper, we propose and simulate a technical scheme to optimize the TDS and EBW of chaotic signal generated by a slave vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (S-VCSEL) under chaotic optical injection from a master vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (M-VCSEL), which is subjected to double external-cavity feedback. First, based on the spin-flip model of a VCSEL subjected to two double external-cavity feedback, the time series of two orthogonal polarization components (referred to as X-component (X-PC) and Y-component (Y-PC), respectively) in the M-VCSEL can be obtained. Furthermore, with the help of self-correlation function (SF) analysis method, the TDSs of X-PC and Y-PC can be evaluated. The results show that through selecting suitable system operation parameters, X-PC and Y-PC in the M-VCSEL can simultaneously output chaotic signals with equivalently average intensity and weak TDS. Under optimized operation parameters, the peak values of the SF (σ) of the chaotic signal are 0.20 for X-PC and 0.16 for Y-PC, respectively, and the EBWs of the chaotic signal are 10.72 GHz for X-PC and 10.10 GHz for Y-PC, respectively. The chaotic signals output from the M-VCSEL under optimized operation parameters are injected into the S-VCSEL for further weakening TDS and enhancing EBW. Through examining the evolution rules of TDS and EBW of polarization-resolved chaotic signals in the parameter space composed of injection strength and frequency detuning, the ranges of optimizing injection parameters are determined for achieving two-channel chaotic signals with well suppressed TDS (σ 15 GHz).

The experimental evidence and characterization of time-delay concealment in a semiconductor laser (SL) with dual-chaotic optical injections (DCOIs) are reported. Autocorrelation function and permutation entropy are employed to extract the time-delay signature (TDS). Our experimental results show that both TDSs associated with the dynamics of master lasers or only one of the two TDSs can be concealed in the SL with DCOI, depending on the choices of the injection ratio and frequency detuning of the two injection lights. The experiments are in good agreement with the simulations. Furthermore, the possibility to use the chaotic signal with no obvious TDS generated by the SL with DCOI for high-speed random number generation is experimentally demonstrated.

Semiconductor Ring Lasers (SRLs) are a modern class of semiconductor lasers whose active cavity is characterized by a circular geometry. This enables the laser to support two counterpropagating modes, referred to as the clockwise (CW) and the counterclockwise (CCW) mode. Semiconductor ring lasers have been shown to have a regime of operation in which they are excitable, when the linear coupling between the counterpropagating modes is asymmetric. This can be achieved by increasing the reflection of, for example, the CW mode into the CCW mode. This will stabilize lasing in the CCW mode. In the excitable regime, the SRL will fire optical pulses (spikes) in the CW mode as a response to noise perturbations. In this contribution we experimentally and theoretically characterize these spikes. Our experiments reveal a statistical distribution of the characteristics of the optical pulses that is not observed in regular excitable systems. In particular, an inverse correlation exists between the pulse amplitude and duration. Numerical simulations and an interpretation in an asymptotic phase space confirm and explain these experimentally observed pulse characteristics [L. Gelens et al., Phys. Rev. A 82 063841, 2010]. We will also theoretically consider asymmetric SRLs coupled through a single bus waveguide. This is a first step towards an integrated optical neural network using semiconductor ring lasers as building blocks. We will show that for weak coupling, excitatory excursions still persist due to the similar phase space structure. Moreover, the coupled SRLs can excite pulses in each other and can thus function as communicating neurons [W. Coomans et al., Phys. Rev. E 84 036209, 2011]. This type of neural network can be fully integrated on chip and does not suffer from the drawback of needing extra-cavity measures, such as optical injection or saturable absorbers.

Aiming at the problems of limited bandwidth and periodicity of chaotic laser, a monolithically integrated chaotic semiconductor laser subject to random feedback and mutual injection is proposed. The chaotic laser consists of two distributed feedback laser diodes (DFB-LD), two semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) and a passive optical waveguide. Optical injection of two coupled DFB-LDs achieves chaotic signal shaping and bandwidth enhancement. Random grating along the passive waveguide provides stochastic feedback to suppress the time delay signature (TDS). A theoretical model is established based on the Lang-Kobayashi model to explore the dynamics of the proposed chaotic laser. A chaotic signal with TDS of 0.06 and bandwidth of 13.12 GHz is obtained by simulation. Furthermore, the effects of parameters including feedback ratio, mutual injection ratio, and detuning frequency on the TDS and bandwidth of chaotic signal are investigated. The results show that the broadband chaotic laser signal with TDS suppression can be obtained by controlling parameters reasonably.

Random source is important for the security of key distribution. In this paper, a novel secure key distribution scheme based on unidirectional injection of vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) system is proposed. In the proposed scheme, a chaotic signal without time delay signature is generated by a VCSEL subject to unidirectional optical injection, which is regarded as a master laser. The chaotic signal generated by the master VCSEL is further injected into two slave VCSELs to obtain synchronized bandwidth-enhanced chaotic signals. After that, by sampling, quantizing and XOR operation on the two synchronized chaotic signals, two key streams can be obtained. Based on the well-known spin-flip model, the time delay signature of chaotic signals generated by master VCSEL and the synchronization performance between the master VCSELs and two slave VCSELs are numerically investigated in detail. It is shown that by the unidirectional injection, the chaotic outputs can be achieved in the master VCSEL in a wide range of frequency detuning and coupling strength. More importantly, no time delay signature can be observed in the auto correlation function of the chaotic intensity time series generated by the master VCSEL. Besides, we find that high quality synchronization is achieved between the bandwidth-enhanced chaotic signals generated by two slave VCSELs under the common driving of master VCSEL. The synchronization coefficient between two slave VCSELs increases up to 0.99, and the synchronization coefficient between master VCSEL and salve VCSEL is only 0.74. Note that such a high quality synchronization between two slave VCSELs while relatively low quality synchronization between the master and slave VCSEL is conducible to ensuring the security of key distribution. In addition, the effects of tunable parameters on key bit error rate are considered, and two quantization methods are employed for comparison. Numerical simulation results show that the key bit error rate between two legitimate users is as low as 1%, and the key bit error rate between legitimate user and eavesdropper is higher than 10% in the single-threshold case; the bit error rate can even be as low as 10-6 in the double-threshold case. The influence of parameter mismatch on key bit error rate is also discussed, and it is suggested that two salve VCSELs should be finely matched to ensure low bit error rate. Finally, NIST randomness test is performed for the generated key streams. Hence, the proposed scheme enhances the security of key distribution, which is valuable for further developing the chaos communication systems.

All-optical schemes for controlling complex delay-induced and spatio-temporal dynamics in multi-stripe and broad-area semiconductor lasers are presented. The underlying control-principle is based on continuous delayed optical feedback. Its influence on the general spatiotemporal dynamics of semiconductor lasers is discussed. The delayed feedback control principle allows successful control of delay-induced chaotic behavior as well as the dynamic optical filamentation in broad-area and multi-stripe lasers. The suppression of spatiotemporal instabilities in semiconductor laser arrays is achieved by selectively stabilizing relevant transverse optical modes. The relevant values of delay-times and delay-phase are obtained from a nonlinear eigenmode analysis based on a complex extension of the Karhunen-Loeve decomposition. Thereby a destructive interference condition in the higher-order transverse modes conveying the instabilities is achieved. The stabilization technique is demonstrated on multi-stripe laser arrays. In high-power broad-area lasers the spatiotemporal filamentation processes occur on both macroscopic and microscopic scales. Numerical simulations on the basis of Maxwell-Bloch equations for spatially extended semiconductor lasers reveal the internal spatial and temporal scales on which control consequently has to occur. It is demonstrated that the combined filamentation and propagation effects may be controlled by suitable spatially structured delayed optical feedback allowing, in particular, the control of coherent regimes in originally temporally and spatially chaotic states.

In this paper, a novel chaotic secure communication system based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) with a common phase-modulated electro-optic (CPMEO) feedback is proposed. The security of the CPMEO system is guaranteed by suppressing the time-delay signature (TDS) with a low-gain electro-optic (EO) feedback loop. Furthermore, the key space is enhanced through a unique secondary encryption method. The first-level encrypted keys are the TDS in the EO feedback loop, and the second-level keys are the physical parameters of the VCSEL under variable-polarization optical feedback. Numerical results show that, compared to the dual-optical feedback system, the TDS of the CPMEO system is suppressed 8 times to less than 0.05 such that they can be completely concealed when the EO gain is 3, and the bandwidth is doubled to over 22 GHz. The error-free 10 Gb/s secure optical transmission can be realized when the time-delay mismatch is controlled within 3 ps. It is shown that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the system performance in TDS concealment, as well as bandwidth and key space enhancement, which has great potential applications in secure dual-channel chaos communication.