Chaos based communications using semiconductor lasers subject to feedback from an integrated double cavity

8 pages, 9 figures.We report the results of numerical investigations of the dynamical behaviour of an integrated device composed of a semiconductor laser and a double cavity that provides optical feedback. Due to the influence of the feedback, under the appropriate conditions, the system displays chaotic behaviour appropriate for chaos-based communications. The optimal conditions for chaos generation are identified. It is found that the double cavity feedback requires lower feedback strengths for developing high complexity chaos when compared with a single cavity. The synchronization of two unidirectional coupled (master–slave) systems and the influence of parameters mismatch on the synchronization quality are also studied. Finally, examples of message encoding and decoding are presented and discussed.The authors acknowledge financial support from the European commission project Picasso IST-2005-34551 and from Spanish MEC and FCDU under projects TEC 2006-10009/MIC (PhoDECC) and FIS2004-00953 (CONOCE2) and the Technical University of Moldova project 307b/s.Peer reviewe