Spatio-temporal complexity in dual delay nonlinear laser dynamics: chimeras and dissipative solitons

TL;DR

This paper explores how dual asymmetric feedback delays in a nonlinear laser system induce robust spatio-temporal patterns like chimeras and dissipative solitons, with control achieved through simple parameter adjustments.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence and control of complex patterns in a photonic system with dual delays, supported by experimental validation and theoretical modeling.

Findings

Observation of robust chimeras and dissipative solitons

Control of pattern switching via system parameters

Strong agreement between experiments and modified Ikeda model

Abstract

We demonstrate for a nonlinear photonic system that two highly asymmetric feedback delays can induce a variety of emergent patterns which are highly robust during the system's global evolution. Explicitly, two-dimensional chimeras and dissipative solitons become visible upon a space-time transformation. Switching between chimeras and dissipative solitons requires only adjusting two system parameters, demonstrating self-organization exclusively based on the system's dynamical properties. Experiments were performed using a tunable semiconductor laser's transmission through a Fabry-Perot resonator resulting in an Airy function as nonlinearity. Resulting dynamics were band-pass filtered and propagated along two feedback paths whose time delays differ by two orders of magnitude. An excellent agreement between experimental results and theoretical model given by modified Ikeda equations was achieved.