Experimental chaotic map generated by picosecond laser pulse-seeded electro-optic nonlinear delay dynamics

We describe experimental studies of the dynamical behavior of a recently proposed electro-optic discrete time nonlinear delay oscillator. With appropriate choice of the oscillator loop parameters and external forcing of the dynamics using a pulsed laser source, the system allows for the physical realization of a high dimensional mathematical nonlinear mapping. The dynamical features observed with this new class of discrete time delay oscillator differ significantly from those observed with similar continuous time nonlinear delay feedback oscillators and reveal the intrinsic discrete time nature of the dynamics. We also discuss specific applications to chaos communications using regularly clocked binary data.