Broadband chaos generation utilizing a wavelength-tunable monolithically integrated chaotic semiconductor laser subject to optical feedback

Abstract

We demonstrate a broadband and wavelength-tunable chaotic laser by using a monolithically integrated wavelength-tunable chaotic semiconductor laser subject to optical feedback. The chip consists of a gain section, a distributed Bragg reflection grating section, a semiconductor optical amplifier section, and a phase section. By applying an optical feedback loop to the chaotic semiconductor laser chip, a nonlinear frequency mixing is stimulated in the laser cavity, and the chaos bandwidth is expanded to 33.6 GHz, which is 4.4 times larger than the bandwidth without optical feedback. Furthermore, the effect of feedback optical power on the bandwidth is investigated. The results show that the wide power spectrum of chaotic laser is available in a large wavelength range from 1556.44 nm to 1566.42 nm. This work explores a broadband and wavelength-tunable chaotic semiconductor laser for the wavelength division multiplexing to enlarge the capacity in chaotic secure optical communications.