Experimental observations of synchronization between two bidirectionally coupled physically dissimilar oscillators.

We experimentally study the complex dynamics of two mutually coupled physically dissimilar oscillators with two different kinds of coupling mechanisms. Specifically, an optoelectronic oscillator is coupled to a Colpitts oscillator via optical power and the Colpitts oscillator is coupled back to the optoelectronic oscillator via electric voltage. We investigate and characterize phase synchronization and generalized chaos synchronization in this coupled system. Phase synchronization is observed when both oscillators are preset to oscillate periodically prior to coupling while generalized chaos synchronization is observed when both oscillators are preset to oscillate chaotically prior to coupling. In the periodical oscillation regime, we observe a linear relationship between the strengths of the two unidirectional coupling factors at which the system transitions to a synchronized state. In the chaotic regime, we observe a transition from hyperchaos to chaos associated with the onset of generalized synchronization.