The synchronization of chaotic rare-earth-doped fiber ring lasers is analyzed. The lasers are first coupled by transmitting a fraction c of the circulating electric field in the transmitter and injecting it into the optical cavity of the receiver. A coupling strategy which relies on modulation of the intensity of the light alone is also examined. Synchronization is studied as a function of the coupling strength, and we see excellent synchronization, even with very small c. We prove that in an open loop configuration $\mathrm{}(c=1\mathrm{})\mathrm{}$ synchronization is guaranteed due to the particular structure of our equations and of the injection method we use. The generalized synchronization of these model lasers is examined when there is parameter mismatch between the transmitter and receiver lasers. The synchronization is found to be insensitive to a wide range of mismatch in laser parameters, but it is sensitive to other parameters, in particular those associated with the phase and the polarization of the circulating electric field. Communicating information between the transmitter and receiver lasers is also addressed. We investigate a scheme for modulating information onto the chaotic electric field and then demodulating and detecting the information embedded in the chaotic signal passed down the communications channel. We show full recovery with very low error for a wide range of coupling strengths.

• Received 20 July 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.63.016215