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arXiv · 2509.07302

Disorder-mediated synchronization resonance in coupled semiconductor lasers

Li-Li Ye·Nathan Vigne·Fan-Yi Lin·Hui Cao·Ying-Cheng Lai
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Abstract

Disorder can profoundly influence synchronization in networks of nonlinear oscillators, sometimes enhancing coherence through external tuning. In semiconductor lasers, however, achieving high-quality steady-state synchronization is desired, while intrinsic and typically uncontrollable disorder poses a major challenge. Under fixed frequency disorder, we investigate homogeneous fully coupled external-cavity semiconductor lasers governed by the complex, time-delayed Lang-Kobayashi equations with experimentally relevant parameters and identify an optimal coupling strength that maximizes steady-state synchronization in the weak-coupling regime, which we term disorder-mediated synchronization resonance. This optimum appears for any fixed configuration of intrinsic frequency detuning and scales inversely with the number of lasers, leading to a linear scaling of the total coupling cost with the number of lasers. A theory based on an effective thermodynamic potential explains this disorder-mediated optimization, revealing a general mechanism by which moderate coupling can overcome static heterogeneity in nonlinear physical systems.

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Li-Li Ye, Nathan Vigne, Fan-Yi Lin, Hui Cao, Ying-Cheng Lai. 2025-09-09. Disorder-mediated synchronization resonance in coupled semiconductor lasers. https://doi.org/10.1103/d8g4-f4qk

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