LAUSR

Abstract Time delay feedback has been shown to produce chaos from non-chaotic systems. In this paper, besides the single and double scroll chaotic attractors, a new composite multi-scroll attractor is found in stable systems with time delay feedback. From the viewpoint of the local stability analysis, conservation analysis, Lyapunov exponent spectrum and power spectrum, the composite multi-scroll attractor is shown to be a hyper-chaotic attractor. The phase trajectory in the new composite hyper-chaotic multi-scroll attractor diverges in multiple eigen-directions, which improves the security of secure communication and chaotic encryption. A paradigm using the multi-scroll attractor for encryption is proposed, demonstrating its potential applicability.