Synchronization of mutually coupled chaotic lasers in the presence of a shutter.

Two mutually coupled chaotic diode lasers exhibit stable isochronal synchronization in the presence of self-feedback. When the mutual communication between the lasers is discontinued by a shutter and the two uncoupled lasers are subject to self-feedback only, the desynchronization time is found to scale as Adtau, where Ad>1 and tau corresponds to the optical distance between the lasers. Prior to synchronization, when the two lasers are uncorrelated and the shutter between them is opened, the synchronization time is found to be much shorter, though still proportional to tau. As a consequence of these results, the synchronization is not significantly altered if the shutter is opened or closed faster than the desynchronization time. Experiments in which the coupling between two chaotic-synchronized diode lasers is modulated with an electro-optic shutter are found to be consistent with the results of numerical simulations.