Synchronization of complex spatio-temporal dynamics with lasers

Jules Mercadier; Stefan Bittner; Marc Sciamanna

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02198-5

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Synchronization of complex spatio-temporal dynamics with lasers

Original Articles

- Synchronization of complex spatio-temporal dynamics with lasers
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 5, Pages: 1502-1510(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Université de Lorraine, CentraleSupélec, LMOPS, Metz, France
  2.Chaire Photonique, LMOPS, Centralesupélec, Metz, France
- Author bio：
  
  Jules Mercadier (jules.mercadier@centralesupelec.fr)
  Marc Sciamanna (marc.sciamanna@centralesupelec.fr)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02198-5
  CLC：
- Received：08 September 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-01-12，
  
  Accepted：14 January 2026，
  
  Online First：28 February 2026，
  
  Published：31 May 2026
- Accepted：
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Mercadier, J., Bittner, S. & Sciamanna, M. Synchronization of complex spatio-temporal dynamics with lasers. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1502-1510 (2026).
DOI：

Mercadier, J., Bittner, S. & Sciamanna, M. Synchronization of complex spatio-temporal dynamics with lasers. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1502-1510 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02198-5.

摘要

Abstract

Synchronization is the spontaneous alignment of the dynamics of weakly-coupled oscillators. In addition to temporal dynamics like periodic and chaotic oscillations

also the spatio-temporal dynamics of spatially-extended systems like wildlife populations can synchronize. We exploit here the intrinsic spatio-temporal complex dynamics of broad area lasers to demonstrate such synchronization at lab-scale. Broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (BA-VCSELs) exhibit chaos from the nonlinear coupling between laser modes with different spatial profiles and polarization. When coupling two BA-VCSELs

several synchronization and anti-synchronization regimes are observed

highlighting the complex interplay between oscillating modes with different frequencies and spatial patterns. The correlation coefficient varies between 0.2 and 0.9 depending on the dynamics and on the time scale under analysis. Besides its fundamental interest

our experiment with commercial devices marks the first step towards real-world spatial multiplexing in multiple user physical-layer secure communication based on chaos synchronization.

关键词

Keywords

references

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