Optoelectronic oscillators and applications

Optoelectronic oscillators are autonomous nonlinear systems which have a delayed feedback loop constituted with an optical and an electrical branch. From the theoretical point of view, OEOs are excellent benchmarks to investigate the fundamental properties of delayed dynamical systems. From the technological viewpoint, they find applications in microwave photonics, optical chaos cryptography, and neuromorphic computing. In this communication, we briefly discuss our latest results with this technology in the FEMTO-ST Institute in France, and we present in depth those obtained in a new photonics lab that we have recently set up in at the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon, within the framework of the International Year of Light.