Observing chaos for quantum-dot microlasers with external feedback

Ferdinand Albert; Caspar Hopfmann; Stephan Reitzenstein; Christian Schneider; Sven Höfling; Lukas Worschech; Martin Kamp; Wolfgang Kinzel; Alfred Forchel; Ido Kanter

doi:10.1038/ncomms1370

Observing chaos for quantum-dot microlasers with external feedback

Ferdinand Albert, Caspar Hopfmann, Stephan Reitzenstein^*, Christian Schneider, Sven Höfling, Lukas Worschech, Martin Kamp, Wolfgang Kinzel, Alfred Forchel, Ido Kanter

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Chaos presents a striking and fascinating phenomenon of nonlinear systems. A common aspect of such systems is the presence of feedback that couples the output signal partially back to the input. Feedback coupling can be well controlled in optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers that provide bench-top platforms for the study of chaotic behaviour and high bit rate random number generation. Here we experimentally demonstrate that chaos can be observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit at nW output powers. Applying self-feedback to a quantum-dot microlaser results in a dramatic change in the photon statistics wherein strong, super-thermal photon bunching is indicative of random-intensity fluctuations associated with the spiked emission of light. Our experiments reveal that gain competition of few quantum dots in the active layer enhances the influence of self-feedback and will open up new avenues for the study of chaos in quantum systems.

Original language	English
Article number	366
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1370
Publication status	Published - Jun 2011

Keywords

RANDOM BIT GENERATION
SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS
DYNAMICS
SYNCHRONIZATION
CRYPTOGRAPHY
EMISSION
RATES

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10.1038/ncomms1370

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title = "Observing chaos for quantum-dot microlasers with external feedback",

abstract = "Chaos presents a striking and fascinating phenomenon of nonlinear systems. A common aspect of such systems is the presence of feedback that couples the output signal partially back to the input. Feedback coupling can be well controlled in optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers that provide bench-top platforms for the study of chaotic behaviour and high bit rate random number generation. Here we experimentally demonstrate that chaos can be observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit at nW output powers. Applying self-feedback to a quantum-dot microlaser results in a dramatic change in the photon statistics wherein strong, super-thermal photon bunching is indicative of random-intensity fluctuations associated with the spiked emission of light. Our experiments reveal that gain competition of few quantum dots in the active layer enhances the influence of self-feedback and will open up new avenues for the study of chaos in quantum systems.",

keywords = "RANDOM BIT GENERATION, SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS, DYNAMICS, SYNCHRONIZATION, CRYPTOGRAPHY, EMISSION, RATES",

author = "Ferdinand Albert and Caspar Hopfmann and Stephan Reitzenstein and Christian Schneider and Sven H{\"o}fling and Lukas Worschech and Martin Kamp and Wolfgang Kinzel and Alfred Forchel and Ido Kanter",

year = "2011",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1038/ncomms1370",

language = "English",

volume = "2",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Observing chaos for quantum-dot microlasers with external feedback

AU - Albert, Ferdinand

AU - Hopfmann, Caspar

AU - Reitzenstein, Stephan

AU - Schneider, Christian

AU - Höfling, Sven

AU - Worschech, Lukas

AU - Kamp, Martin

AU - Kinzel, Wolfgang

AU - Forchel, Alfred

AU - Kanter, Ido

PY - 2011/6

Y1 - 2011/6

N2 - Chaos presents a striking and fascinating phenomenon of nonlinear systems. A common aspect of such systems is the presence of feedback that couples the output signal partially back to the input. Feedback coupling can be well controlled in optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers that provide bench-top platforms for the study of chaotic behaviour and high bit rate random number generation. Here we experimentally demonstrate that chaos can be observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit at nW output powers. Applying self-feedback to a quantum-dot microlaser results in a dramatic change in the photon statistics wherein strong, super-thermal photon bunching is indicative of random-intensity fluctuations associated with the spiked emission of light. Our experiments reveal that gain competition of few quantum dots in the active layer enhances the influence of self-feedback and will open up new avenues for the study of chaos in quantum systems.

AB - Chaos presents a striking and fascinating phenomenon of nonlinear systems. A common aspect of such systems is the presence of feedback that couples the output signal partially back to the input. Feedback coupling can be well controlled in optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers that provide bench-top platforms for the study of chaotic behaviour and high bit rate random number generation. Here we experimentally demonstrate that chaos can be observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit at nW output powers. Applying self-feedback to a quantum-dot microlaser results in a dramatic change in the photon statistics wherein strong, super-thermal photon bunching is indicative of random-intensity fluctuations associated with the spiked emission of light. Our experiments reveal that gain competition of few quantum dots in the active layer enhances the influence of self-feedback and will open up new avenues for the study of chaos in quantum systems.

KW - RANDOM BIT GENERATION

KW - SEMICONDUCTOR-LASERS

KW - DYNAMICS

KW - SYNCHRONIZATION

KW - CRYPTOGRAPHY

KW - EMISSION

KW - RATES

U2 - 10.1038/ncomms1370

DO - 10.1038/ncomms1370

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 2

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 366

ER -

Observing chaos for quantum-dot microlasers with external feedback

Abstract

Keywords

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