Metasurface-assisted balanced-injection synchronization for turbulence-resilient long-haul chaotic free-space link

Abstract: Optical chaotic synchronization between coupled nonlinear lasers underpins most chaos-based applications, including complex laser network dynamics, secure communication, key distribution, and reinforcement learning. In free-space links, however, chaotic synchronization is highly vulnerable to stochastic fluctuation induced by atmospheric turbulence, which results in temporal injection imbalances at symmetric receivers and triggers intermittent desynchronization. Here, we introduce a full Poincaré vector beam-enabled balanced-injection synchronization (BIS) mechanism, which passively mitigates coupling fluctuations and preserves injection symmetry through a complementary metasurface pair, without requiring any channel estimation or active control. Over a 3.2 km urban link under moderately strong turbulence, BIS suppresses coupling power fluctuations by a factor of 4.6 (from 0.4511 to 0.0975). It eliminates desynchronization events and increases the high-quality synchronization probability from 58.6% to 91.0%. This enables a record-high bit rate-distance product of 720 Gbps \cdot km, reducing communication interruption probability by up to 77% compared to Gaussian beam transmission. Our innovative strategy bridges the gap between nanophotonics and engineering optics, offering a new insight into advancing next-generation LiDAR, secure communication, and integrated sensing and communication systems in turbulent environments.