Bursting oscillations in Colpitts oscillator and application in optoelectronics for the generation of complex optical signals

Abstract

We are exploring an optoelectronic oscillator featuring a Colpitts oscillator in its electrical path. The Colpitts oscillator generates high frequency electrical signals and exhibits dynamical behaviors such as periodic and bursting oscillations which can be easily monitored using a potentiometer. Inserting the Colpitts oscillator in the optoelectronic oscillator, we put forward the interaction between optical nonlinearity and electronic nonlinearity to obtain also complex dynamical behaviors. The temporal dynamics of the system with and without delayed feedback is investigated experimentally. It is shown that a wide variety of periodic and chaotic states can be excited and that there is an amplification of the signal frequencies. In particular, bursting, chaotic bursting and chaotic pulse-package oscillations with slow-fast temporal dynamics are experimentally observed in the system.