Chaotic generation based on figure-of-eight erbium-doped fiber laser with an optical fiber ring

We experimentally demonstrate the chaotic generation in a figure-of-eight erbium-doped fiber laser (F8L) with an optical fiber ring (OFR). With an appropriate combination of polarization controllers, we find that the fiber laser exhibits period-doubling route to chaos, and the chaotic self-synchronous dynamics has a tendency to be reduced significantly. The experimental results show the tendency is related to the interference and the nonlinear phase shift of light in the optical fiber ring. Meanwhile, the chaotic dynamics is related to the polarization state and pump power.