Secure data transmission can utilize “chaos”—complex, noise-like signals generated by physical systems that appear random but follow deterministic rules. By using chaotic light as a carrier, messages can be concealed during transmission. However, traditional optical chaos systems often require physical hardware modifications for adjustments. Furthermore, if the injected message signal is too strong, it can disrupt the synchronization between the sender and receiver, causing data decoding errors.

Researchers led by Prof. Bing Wang at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China, have demonstrated a controllable solution using a "synthetic temporal lattice". This technique maps optical pulses into a discrete time-domain space using coupled optical fiber loops, which eliminates the need for physical hardware reconfiguration. By incorporating an optoelectronic feedback circuit, the team introduced tunable artificial nonlinearity to generate chaotic pulse sequences with tunable entropy. To prevent the message from disrupting system synchronization, the researchers implemented an "alternate encoding strategy". They loaded message bits onto the chaotic carrier at single-pulse intervals, leaving the intervening pulses unmodulated. These unmodulated pulses act as a driving signal to maintain accurate synchronization at the receiver. Experimental results showed that this approach achieves near-zero decoding errors, regardless of the injected message intensity. This study provides a reconfigurable platform for controlling optical chaos. The researchers suggest that future implementations using integrated chip-scale waveguides instead of long optical fibers could increase the effective data rate to the order of 100 Mbit/s or higher, which would improve the system's compactness and environmental stability. The work entitled “Programmable synthetic temporal lattices for high-fidelity chaotic synchronization” was published on Frontiers of Optoelectronics (published on Jun. 26, 2026).

DOI: 10.2738/foe.2026.0026