Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) harness the inherent unpredictability of quantum mechanics to produce true randomness. Yet, in many optical implementations, the light source remains a potential vulnerability—susceptible to deviations from ideal behavior and even adversarial eavesdropping. Source-device-independent (SDI) protocols address this with a pragmatic strategy, by removing trust assumptions on the source, and instead rely on realistic modeling and characterization of the measurement device. In this work, we enhance an existing SDI-QRNG protocol by eliminating the need for a perfectly balanced beam splitter within the trusted measurement device, which is an idealized assumption made for the simplification of security analysis. We demonstrate that certified randomness can still be reliably extracted across a wide range of beam-splitting ratios, significantly improving the protocol’s practicality and robustness. Using only off-the-shelf components, our implementation achieves real-time randomness generation rates of 0.347 Gbps. We also experimentally validate the protocol’s resilience against adversarial attacks and highlight its self-testing capabilities. These advances mark a significant step toward practical, lightweight, high-performance, fully passive, and composably secure QRNGs suitable for real-world deployment.
Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) harness the inherent unpredictability of quantum mechanics to produce true randomness. Yet, in many optical implementations, the light source remains a potential vulnerability—susceptible to deviations from ideal behavior and even adversarial eavesdropping. Source-device-independent (SDI) protocols address this with a pragmatic strategy, by removing trust assumptions on the source, and instead rely on realistic modeling and characterization of the measurement device. In this work, we enhance an existing SDI-QRNG protocol by eliminating the need for a perfectly balanced beam splitter within the trusted measurement device, which is an idealized assumption made for the simplification of security analysis. We demonstrate that certified randomness can still be reliably extracted across a wide range of beam-splitting ratios, significantly improving the protocol’s practicality and robustness. Using only off-the-shelf components, our implementation achieves real-time randomness generation rates of 0.347 Gbps. We also experimentally validate the protocol’s resilience against adversarial attacks and highlight its self-testing capabilities. These advances mark a significant step toward practical, lightweight, high-performance, fully passive, and composably secure QRNGs suitable for real-world deployment.
Abstract As a fundamental phenomenon in nature, randomness has a wide range of applications in the fields of science and engineering. Among different types of random number generators (RNG), quantum random number generator (QRNG) is a kind of promising RNG as it can provide provable true random numbers based on the inherent randomness of fundamental quantum processes. Nevertheless, the randomness from a QRNG can be diminished (or even destroyed) if the devices (especially the entropy source devices) are not perfect or ill-characterized. To eliminate the practical security loopholes from the source, source-independent QRNGs, which allow the source to have arbitrary and unknown dimensions, have been introduced and become one of the most important semi-device-independent (DI) QRNGs. Herein a method that enables ultra-fast unpredictable quantum random number generation from quadrature fluctuations of quantum optical field without any assumptions on the input states is proposed. Particularly, to estimate a lower bound on the extractable randomness that is independent from side information held by an eavesdropper, a new security analysis framework is established based on the extremality of Gaussian states, which can be easily extended to design and analyze new semi-DI continuous variable QRNG protocols. Moreover, the practical imperfections of the QRNG including the effects of excess noise, finite sampling range, finite resolution and asymmetric conjugate quadratures are taken into account and quantitatively analyzed. Finally, the proposed method is experimentally demonstrated to obtain high secure random number generation rates of 15.07 Gbits s −1 in off-line configuration and can potentially achieve 6 Gbits s −1 by real-time post-processing.
Random numbers are essential resources in science and engineering, with indispensable applications in simulation, cybersecurity, and finance. Quantum random number generators (QRNGs), based on the principles of quantum mechanics, ensure genuine randomness and unpredictability. Silicon photonics enables the large-scale deployment of integrated QRNGs due to its low cost, miniaturization, and compatibility with CMOS technology. However, current integrated QRNGs are typically based on perfect or partially perfect device models, deviating from real-world devices, which compromises the unpredictability of quantum random numbers. In this study, we implemented a silicon-based QRNG that makes no assumptions about the source and only uses trusted but uncharacterized measurement devices. In experimental demonstration, we show that our setup can generate secure random numbers with different choices of intensities of laser light, and achieve an optimized random number generation rate of up to 4.04 Mbps. Our work significantly advances the security, practicality, and commercial development of QRNGs by employing imperfect devices.
Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) use the inherent unpredictability of quantum mechanics to generate true randomness, as opposed to classical random number generators. However, ensuring the authenticity of this randomness still requires robust verification. Self-testing QRNGs address this need by enabling the validation of the randomness produced based on the observed data from the experiment while requiring few assumptions. In this work, we present a practical, self-testing QRNG designed to operate with an untrusted measurement device and a partially characterized source, allowing the user to check the adequate functioning of the setup in real time. Our experiment yields a rate of certified random bits of 450 kbps.
Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) produce true random numbers based on the inherent randomness of quantum theory, rendering them a foundational segment of quantum cryptography. Distinguished from trusted-device QRNGs whose security depends on characterized devices, semi-device-independent (semi-DI) QRNGs permit partial devices to be defective or even maliciously manipulated, which achieves a good trade-off between generation rate and security. In this paper, we propose a semi-DI QRNG that resists general attacks while accounting for finite-size effects. The protocol requires no rigorous characterization of the source and measurement devices other than limiting the energy of the emitted states, significantly reducing the demands on practical QRNG systems. Leveraging the tight Kato inequality for correlated variables, we show that our protocol generates more randomness than it consumes. Furthermore, we demonstrate the scheme on a continuous-variable system with ternary inputs of states. Heterodyne detection is employed to enable phase compensation through data postprocessing, alleviating the stringent requirement on system stability. The system operates at 100 MHz, achieving a net random number generation rate of 1.165 Mbps at 5.3x10^9 rounds. Our work offers a promising approach to achieve both the robust security and high generation rate with a simple experimental setup.
Generating random numbers plays an important role in many scientific applications. Compared to pseudorandom number generators, a quantum device is capable of generating true random numbers by the laws of quantum mechanics. However, information-theoretical secure random numbers are regularly based on a perfect device model, which may deviate from a real-world device. To close this gap, we propose a quantum random number generation protocol and experimentally demonstrate it. In our protocol, we make no assumptions about the source. Some reasonable assumptions on the trusted two-dimensional measurement are needed, but we do not require a detailed characterization. Even if considering the most general quantum attack and using the general sources, we achieve a randomness generation rate of over 1 Mbps with a universal composable security parameter of 10^{-10}.
Quantum resources offer intrinsic randomness that is valuable for applications such as cryptography, scientific simulation, and computing. Silicon-based photonics chips present an excellent platform for the cost-effective deployment of next-generation quantum systems on a large scale, even at room temperature. Nevertheless, the potential susceptibility of these chips to hacker control poses a challenge in ensuring security for on-chip quantum random number generation, which is crucial for enabling extensive utilization of quantum resources. Here, we introduce and implement an on-chip source-device-independent quantum random number generator (SDI-QRNG). The randomness of this generator is achieved through distortion-free on-chip detection of quantum resources, effectively eliminating classical noise interference. The security of the system is ensured by employing on-chip criteria for estimating security entropy in a practical chip environment. By incorporating a photoelectric package, the SDI-QRNG chip achieves a secure bit rate of 146.2 Mbps and a bare chip rate of 248.47 Gbps, with all extracted secure bits successfully passing the randomness test. Our experimental demonstration of this chip-level SDI-QRNG shows significant advantages in practical applications, paving the way for the widespread and cost-effective implementation of room-temperature secure QRNG, which marks a milestone in the field of QRNG chips.