Experimental verification of anticipated and retarded synchronization in chaotic semiconductor lasers

Experimental observation of both anticipated and retarded synchronization is demonstrated using unidirectionally coupled semiconductor lasers with delayed optoelectronic feedback. Depending on the difference between the transmission time and the feedback delay time, the lasers fall into either the anticipated or the retarded synchronization regime, where the driven receiver laser leads or lags behind the driving transmitter laser. The two regimes are observed to have the same stability of chaos synchronization in the presence of small perturbations by noise and parameter mismatches. In both regimes the observed time shift between the synchronized chaotic waveforms is found to be equal to the difference between the transmission time and the feedback delay time.