@Article{Supelec810,
author = {Martin Virte and Krassimir Panajotov and Hugo Thienpont and Marc Sciamanna},
title = {{Deterministic polarization chaos from a laser diode}},
journal = {Nature Photonics},
year = {2012},
volume = {7},
pages = {60-65},
month = {nov},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.286},
doi = {10.1038/nphoton.2012.286},
abstract = {Fifty years after the invention of the laser diode, and forty years after the butterfly effect signified the unpredictability of deterministic chaos, it is commonly believed that a laser diode behaves like a damped nonlinear oscillator and cannot be driven into chaotic operation without additional forcing or parameter modulation. Here, we counter that belief and report the first example of a free-running laser diode generating chaos. The underlying physics comprises a nonlinear coupling between two elliptically polarized modes in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. We identify chaos in experimental time series and show, theoretically, the bifurcations leading to single- and double-scroll attractors with characteristics similar to Lorenz chaos. The reported polarization chaos resembles noise-driven mode hopping, but shows opposite statistical properties. Our findings open up new research areas for the creation of controllable and integrated sources of optical chaos.}
}