Two-dimensional spatiotemporal complexity in dual-delayed nonlinear feedback systems: Chimeras and dissipative...

We demonstrate for a photonic nonlinear system that two highly asymmetric feedback delays can induce a variety of emergent patterns which are highly robust during the system's global evolution. Explicitly, two-dimensional chimeras and dissipative solitons become visible upon a space-time transformation. Switching between chimeras and dissipative solitons requires only adjusting two system parameters, demonstrating self-organization exclusively based on the system's dynamical properties. Experiments were performed using a tunable semiconductor laser's transmission through a Fabry-Pérot resonator resulting in an Airy function as nonlinearity. Resulting dynamics were bandpass filtered and propagated along two feedback paths whose time delays differ by two orders of magnitude. An excellent agreement between experimental results and the theoretical model given by modified Ikeda equations was achieved.