Remote generation of synchronized optical chaos based on physical unmatched private chaotic sources

Optical chaos synchronization plays a pivotal role in physical-layer secure communications and key distribution. Yet conventional approaches require precise hardware matching, inducing security compromises and robustness limitations. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel, to the best of our knowledge, remote-synchronized optical chaos generation scheme exploiting physical unmatched chaotic sources with nonidentical hardware, eliminating parameter matching requirements. As a proof of concept, the experiment achieved high-fidelity synchronization with a correlation coefficient of up to 0.93 between two separated ends, which are equipped with independent chaotic signals and implemented via wavelength-division multiplexing over a 20-km fiber link. The scheme achieves remote generation of synchronized optical chaos while maintaining hardware autonomy and privacy between transmitter and receiver, offering a promising approach for chaos synchronization and enabling potential application in distributed encryption systems.