Experimental Investigation of the Dynamical Modes of Four Pulse-Coupled Chemical Micro-Oscillators

We present an experimental system of four identical microreactors (MRs) in which the photosensitive oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction occurs. The inhibitory coupling of these BZ MRs is organized via pulses of light coming to each MR from a computer projector. These pulses are induced by spike(s) in other MR(s) of the same network. Time delay between the spike in one BZ MR and the pulsed perturbation of the other BZ MR(s), the amplitude of light pulses, their duration, and the connectivity of the MRs are controlled by the LabVIEW software. Recording the dynamics of the BZ reaction in the MRs via a microscope equipped with a CCD camera, we observe all the main dynamical modes of our network of MRs, which are the IP (in-phase), AP (anti-phase), W (walk), and WR (walk reverse) for the unidirectional coupling, and the IP, two-cluster, three-cluster, and splay modes for the all-to-all coupling. Our software detects all the modes of the network automatically and makes it possible to switch between them on demand using a few special "switching" pulses. As the result of the present work, the experimental implementation of the adaptive behaviour of the pulse-coupled chemical micro-oscillator networks becomes available.