Synchronization of Chaotic Fiber Lasers With Reduced External Coupling

In order to achieve synchronization between chaotic lasers the coupling strength must typically exceed a certain threshold. Here, we show how this threshold can be significantly reduced by adding loss that is minimized when the coupled lasers are both phase locked and synchronized. A model is developed for this loss enhanced synchronization and the calculated results are in good agreement to those obtained experimentally with two coupled chaotic fiber lasers.