Eur. Phys. J. D 58, 187-189 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2010-00093-8

Excitability of periodic and chaotic attractors in semiconductor lasers with optoelectronic feedback

¹ CNR-Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Largo E. Fermi 6, 50125 Firenze, Italy
² Physics Department, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Al Jadiriah, Baghdad, Iraq
³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Firenze, INFN, Sezione di Firenze, via Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy
⁴ High Institute of Telecommunications and Post, Al Salihiya, Baghdad, Iraq
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Firenze, via Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

Corresponding author: marzena.ciszak@inoa.it

Received: 2 March 2010
Revised: 12 March 2010
Published online: 6 April 2010

Abstract

The dynamics of a semiconductor laser with AC-coupled nonlinear optoelectronic feedback has been experimentally studied. A period doubling sequence of small periodic and chaotic attractors is observed, each of them displaying excitable features. This scenario is found also in a simplified physical model of the system, thus extending the concept of excitability, usually associated to fixed points, also to the case of higher-dimensional attractors.