Chaotic on-off keying for secure communications

We experimentally demonstrate a chaotic on-off keying method for secure communications by using chaos synchronization in two microchip lasers. The output of the microchip laser in the transmitter is externally modulated with an acousto-optic modulator at similar to4 MHz. One encodes a digital message in the chaotic carrier by turning the modulation on and off at 100 kHz. Because the accuracy of synchronization for the slave laser in the receiver tends to be degraded in the presence of external modulation in the injection laser signal, one can distinguish two binary states. The digital message can be recovered as an envelope of the chaotic oscillation when the difference between the two laser outputs of the transmitter and the receiver is calculated. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.