Polarization-preserved and polarization-rotated synchronization of chaotic vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

The synchronization process in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) based master-slave configuration, where the master laser has been destabilised by optical feedback from an external mirror, has been investigated. The dynamics of both VCSEL polarization modes have been modeled and used to study the chaos synchronization mechanism in both polarization preserved, and polarization rotated unidirectionally coupled master and slave configurations. Two types of synchronization have been identified in the polarization rotated case, one of which may afford an opportunity to effect multiplexed message encoding using orthogonal laser modes.