Parallel optical chaotic comb generation in an SOA-based fiber ring laser with an unbalanced polarization-maintaining Sagnac loop

Chongyu Huang and Fei Wang

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2026, vol. 210, issue P2

Abstract: Parallel optical chaotic combs are essential for high-capacity secure communication, ultrafast random number generation, and parallel LiDAR. However, existing schemes relying on high-Q on-chip microcavities or specially structured semiconductor lasers suffer from high fabrication complexity, stringent pump requirements, and poor compatibility with standard fiber systems. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple, low-cost, and robust approach to generate a broadband optical chaotic frequency comb using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based fiber ring laser with an unbalanced polarization-maintaining Sagnac loop. Leveraging the inhomogeneous gain broadening of the SOA and the accumulated nonlinear effects in a dispersion-shifted fiber, our system produces over 140 comb lines across a 25 nm bandwidth with a signal-to-noise ratio exceeding 30 dB. As an illustrative example, the comb line at 1595.33 nm yields a maximum Lyapunov exponent of 0.1023 ns−1 and a correlation dimension of 1.45, which together provide clear evidence of deterministic chaos. The maximum value of the cross-correlation coefficients among ten randomly selected channels is 0.04, satisfying the orthogonality requirement for parallel information processing. The system also demonstrates satisfactory spectral stability under controlled laboratory conditions over 30 min, with a peak-power variation of only 0.203 dBm and a center-wavelength shift of 0.01 nm. This work provides an accessible, commercially viable, and integrable platform for parallel chaotic sources, offering a potential pathway toward bridging the gap between laboratory demonstrations and practical large-scale applications.

Keywords: Fiber laser; Optical frequency comb; Chaotic dynamics; Parallel information processing; Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA); Sagnac loop (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:210:y:2026:i:p2:s0960077926009148

DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2026.118773

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