Scientists Synchronize Chaotic Lasers

In the early 1990s, two scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Rajarshi Roy and K. Scott Thornburg, made breakthroughs in controlling the chaotic fluctuations in light intensity in certain laser systems. Now Roy has reported using chaotic fluctuations to encrypt information that is transmitted from one laser to another over fiber optic cable. The research could make it possible to hide private transmitted messages.
Roy reported sending signals at a rate of 10 Mb/s, but subsequent experiments demonstrated a rate of up to 150 Mb/s. Researchers must further develop the techniques and verify that they can be used over longer lengths of fiber before commercially producing the system.