Daeyoung Choi

Compressive Sensing with Optical Chaos

Compressive sensing (CS) is a technique to sample a sparse signal below the Nyquist-Shannon limit, yet still enabling its reconstruction. As such, CS permits an extremely parsimonious way to store and transmit large and important classes of signals and images that would be far more data intensive should they be sampled following the prescription of the Nyquist-Shannon theorem. CS has found applications as diverse as seismology and biomedical imaging. In this work, we use actual optical signals generated from temporal intensity chaos from external-cavity semiconductor lasers (ECSL) to construct the sensing matrix that is employed to compress a sparse signal. The chaotic time series produced having their relevant dynamics on the 100 ps timescale, our results open the way to ultrahigh-speed compression of sparse signals.

Statistics of the optical intensity of a chaotic external-cavity DFB laser

We study experimentally and theoretically the first- and second-order statistics of the optical intensity of a chaotic external-cavity semiconductor DFB laser in fully developed coherence-collapse. The second-order statistic is characterized by the autocorrelation, where we achieve consistent experimental and theoretical results over the entire parameter range considered. For the first-order statistic, we find that the experimental probability-density function is significantly more concentrated around the mean optical power and robust to parameter changes than theory predicts.

Mapping the nonlinear dynamics of a laser diode via its terminal voltage.

We show that the bifurcations between dynamical states originating in the nonlinear dynamics of an external-cavity semiconductor laser at constant current can be detected by its terminal voltage V. We experimentally vary the intensity fed back into the gain medium by the external cavity and show that the dc component V(dc) of V tracks the optical intensity-based bifurcation diagram. It is shown using computational results based upon the Lang-Kobayashi model that whereas optical intensity accesses the dynamical-state variable |E|, V is related to population-inversion carrier density N. The change in feedback strength affects N and thereby the quasi-Fermi energy level difference at the p-i-n junction band-gap of the gain medium. The change in the quasi-Fermi energy-level thereby changes the terminal voltage V. Thus V is shown to provide information on the change in the dynamical-state variable N, which complements the more conventionally probed optical intensity.

A multi-GHz chaotic optoelectronic oscillator based on laser terminal voltage

A multi-GHz chaotic optoelectronic oscillator based on an external cavity semiconductor laser (ECL) is demonstrated. Unlike the standard optoelectronic oscillators for microwave applications, we do not employ the dynamic light output incident on a photodiode to generate the microwave signal, but instead generate the microwave signal directly by measuring the terminal voltage V(t) of the laser diode of the ECL under constant-current operation, thus obviating the photodiode entirely.

Low-frequency fluctuations in an external-cavity laser leading to extreme events.

We experimentally investigate the dynamical regimes of a laser diode subject to external optical feedback in light of extreme-event (EE) analysis. We observe EEs in the low-frequency fluctuations (LFFs) regime. This number decreases to negligible values when the laser transitions towards fully developed coherence collapse as the injection current is increased. Moreover, we show that EEs observed in the LFF regime are linked to high-frequency pulsing events observed after a power dropout. Finally, we prove experimentally that the observation of EEs in the LFF regimes is robust to changes in operational parameters.

Multiscale Ordinal Symbolic Analysis of the Lang-Kobayashi Model for External-Cavity Semiconductor Lasers: A Test of Theory

We study experimentally and theoretically the permutation entropy (PE) of the optical intensity I(t) of an external-cavity semiconductor distributed feedback laser in the coherence collapse regime. Our PE analysis allows us to uncover the intrinsic dynamical complexity at multiple timescales of the delayed-feedback system, as well as to investigate how the experimental observations can be determined by modeling. An overall good agreement between experiment and theory corroborates the effectiveness of the Lang-Kobayashi model, though the model underestimates the entropy on the timescale of the relaxation oscillations and can lead to a time-delay signature that is less evident than in experiment, indicating a potential vulnerability of chaos encryption. This provides a critical test of the standard theoretical framework in which chaotic external-cavity semiconductor lasers are understood.

Bifurcation-Cascade Diagrams of an External-Cavity Semiconductor Laser: Experiment and Theory

We report detailed experimental bifurcation diagrams of an external-cavity semiconductor laser. We have focused on the case of a DFB laser biased up to 1.6 times the threshold current and subjected to feedback from a distant reflector. We observe bifurcation cascades resulting from the destabilization of external-cavity modes that appear successively when the feedback is increased, and explain, in light of the Lang and Kobayashi (LK) model, how the cascading is influenced by various laser operating parameters (current, delay, and feedback phase) and experimental conditions. The semiquantitative agreement between experiments and simulations validates over a large range of operating parameters, the LK model as a tool for reproducing the salient aspects of the dynamics of a DFB laser subjected to external optical feedback.

Fast random bit generation with a single chaotic laser subjected to optical feedback

Random bit generation (RBG) with chaotic semiconductor lasers has been extensively studied because of its potential applications in secure communications and high-speed numerical simulations. Researchers in this field have mainly focused on the improvement of the generation rate and the compactness of the random bit generators. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the existence of two regimes of fast RBG using a single chaotic laser subjected to delayed optical feedback: the first one is based on the extraction of all min-entropy contained in each random sample, and the second one is to demonstrate a possibility of increasing the generation rate by extracting 55 bits from each variable.

Multistate intermittency on the route to chaos of a semiconductor laser subjected to optical feedback from a long external cavity

We observe experimentally two regimes of intermittency on the route to chaos of a semiconductor laser subjected to optical feedback from a long external cavity as the feedback level is increased. The first regime encountered corresponds to multistate intermittency involving two or three states composed of several combinations of periodic, quasiperiodic, and subharmonic dynamics. The second regime is observed for larger feedback levels and involves intermittency between period-doubled and chaotic regimes. This latter type of intermittency displays statistical properties similar to those of on-off intermittency.

Chaotic laser voltage: An electronic entropy source

The chaotic terminal voltage dynamics of a semiconductor laser subjected to external optical feedback are utilized to directly generate electronic random number streams with minimal post-processing at rates of 40–120 Gb/s, thus obviating the need for optical-to-electrical conversion and facilitating integration with high-speed computers and devices. Furthermore, a comparison of the terminal voltage to the optical intensity being utilized as entropy sources is performed. It is shown that the voltage dynamics have an inherently larger entropy, a reduction in delay signature, and a more suitable distribution for generating random bit streams.