Open- versus closed-loop performance of synchronized chaotic external-cavity semiconductor lasers

We numerically study the synchronization or entrainment of two unidirectional coupled single-mode semiconductor lasers in a master-slave configuration. The emitter laser is an external-cavity laser subject to optical feedback that operates in a chaotic regime. The receiver can either operate at a chaotic regime similar to the emitter (closed-loop configuration) or without optical feedback and consequently under continuous-wave conditions when it is uncoupled (open-loop configuration). We compute the degree of synchronization of the two lasers as a function of the emitter-receiver coupling constant, the feedback rate of the receiver, and the detuning. We find that the closed-loop scheme has, in general, a larger region of synchronization when compared with the open loop. We also study the possibility of message encoding and decoding in both open and closed loops and their robustness against parameter mismatch. Finally, we compute the time it takes the system to recover the synchronization or entrainment state when the coupling between the two subsystems is lost. We find that this time is much larger in the closed loop than in the open one.