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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Experimental realization of quantum random number generator

Jan Soubusta, Ondřej Haderka, Martin Hendrych, Pavel Pavlíček

Published Nov 21, 2003• 4 citations

Abstract

We present our experimental realization of a quantum random number generator (RNG) based on the quantum random process of division of light pulse on a fiber coupler. Our prototype consists of fiber optics elements: a pigtailcd laser diode, two mechanical attenuators, a fiber coupler, and two single photon detectors. The RNG contains all necessary electronics for the generation of light pulses, synchronized reading of detectors' states, processing of these results, and transfer of data to a host computer. The connection to the computer is done via a 25-pin parallel port, that makes our device easy to use with any personal computer (PC). The RNG can be operated in four different modes, that arc selected by the PC. The zeroth mode is just for the device control, the first mode serves for appropriate setting of generation efficiency, the second mode is designed for raw data sequence generation at a rate of 114 kByte/s, and the last mode provides balanced data sequence at a rate of 28 kByte/s utilizing von Ncumann's extraction procedure. This procedure is used to gain a properly balanced ratio between '0's and '1's. The balanced data sequence generated by the RNG in the third mode passes all kinds of tests we arc using [for example 15 tests proposed by G. Marsaglia, WWW: http://stat.fsu.edu/ geo/diehard.html 1. The raw data sequence can be used for purposes that do not need properly balanced data, because raw data passes tests that arc not inspecting the sequence balance.

DOI: 10.1117/12.545053

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We present our experimental realization of a quantum random number generator (RNG) based on the quantum random process of division of light pulse on a fiber coupler. Our prototype consists of fiber optics elements: a pigtailcd laser diode, two mechanical attenuators, a fiber coupler, and two single photon detectors. The RNG contains all necessary electronics for the generation of light pulses, synchronized reading of detectors' states, processing of these results, and transfer of data to a host computer. The connection to the computer is done via a 25-pin parallel port, that makes our device easy to use with any personal computer (PC). The RNG can be operated in four different modes, that arc selected by the PC. The zeroth mode is just for the device control, the first mode serves for appropriate setting of generation efficiency, the second mode is designed for raw data sequence generation at a rate of 114 kByte/s, and the last mode provides balanced data sequence at a rate of 28 kByte/s utilizing von Ncumann's extraction procedure. This procedure is used to gain a properly balanced ratio between '0's and '1's. The balanced data sequence generated by the RNG in the third mode passes all kinds of tests we arc using [for example 15 tests proposed by G. Marsaglia, WWW: http://stat.fsu.edu/ geo/diehard.html 1. The raw data sequence can be used for purposes that do not need properly balanced data, because raw data passes tests that arc not inspecting the sequence balance.

Abstract Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) are based on naturally random measurement results performed on individual quantum systems. Here, we demonstrate a branching-path photonic QRNG implemented using a Sagnac interferometer with a tunable splitting ratio. The fine-tuning of the splitting ratio allows us to maximize the entropy of the generated sequence of random numbers and effectively compensate for tolerances in the components. By producing single-photons from attenuated telecom laser pulses, and employing commercially-available components we are able to generate a sequence of more than 2 gigabytes of random numbers with an average entropy of 7.99 bits/byte directly from the raw measured data. Furthermore, our sequence passes randomness tests from both the NIST and Dieharder statistical test suites, thus certifying its randomness. Our scheme shows an alternative design of QRNGs based on the dynamic adjustment of the uniformity of the produced random sequence, which is relevant for the construction of modern generators that rely on independent real-time testing of its performance.

Since reflection or transmission of a quantum particle on a beamsplitter is inherently random quantum process, a device built on this principle does not suffer from drawbacks of neither pseudo-random computer generators or classical noise sources. Nevertheless, a number of physical conditions necessary for high quality random numbers generation must be satisfied. Luckily, in quantum optics realization they can be well controlled. We present an easy random number generator based on the division of weak light pulses on a beamsplitter. The randomness of the generated bit stream is supported by passing the data through series of 15 statistical test. The device generates at a rate of 109.7 kbit/s.

Abstract We demonstrate a fiber-optic source of random numbers in which random-number generation (RNG) is implemented via an inherently quantum process—detection of correlated photon pairs produced by spontaneous four-wave mixing (FWM) inside an optical fiber. The detection times of individual photon pairs, generated in our RNG scheme via phase-matched FWM in a highly nonlinear photonic-crystal fiber with a suitable dispersion profile, are converted into megabit-size binary sequences, serving as strings of random numbers. The randomness of these bit strings is verified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology Statistical Test Suite. We identify FWM regimes in which mode-locked short-pulse laser sources can provide a high peak power needed to drive photon-pair generation in optical fibers without an excessive loss of randomness due to unwanted patterns in the RNG photon-pair output.

In this paper, the prototype of quantum random number generator (QRNG) which is shown by extracting ran- domness from vacuum fluctuation of the electromagnetic field inside the laser cavity. A distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode (LD) is directly modulated to produce short optical pulses. The laser is operated far above and far below the threshold resulting in field of pulse which has a true random phase. The efficient conversion of vacuum fluctuations to random sequence of power of optical pulses is made by homemade Michelson interferom- eter. A proposed device has proven to have far more superior interferometric visibility coupled with high power making it also a cost-effective PIN diode detector as compared to QRNGs based on phase fluctuation modu- lated by constant current. As a result a proposed device is highly integrated using only commercially available components. Due to appropriate realization of our device, we have a good quality of raw random bits that have passed all tests without postprocessing. So the postprocessing doesn't significantly decrease the speed of output random bits. In fact, we have successfully demonstrated a prototype of high speed QRNG at a generation rate of over 1 Gbps.

We present a random number generation scheme based on measuring the phase fluctuations of a laser with a simple experimental setup. A simple model is established to analyze the randomness and the simulation result based on this model fits well with the experiment data. After the analog to digital sampling and suitable randomness extraction integrated in the field programmable gate array, the final random bits are delivered to a PC, realizing a 5.4 Gbps real time quantum random number generation. The final random bit sequences have passed all the NIST and DIEHARD tests.

This paper proposes and demonstrates an optical quantum random number generator based on distribution of single photon pulse amplitude of a photomultiplier tube. The light emitted from ultraviolet LED is attenuated into discrete single photon sequence. After these photons are detected by the photomultiplier tube, the single-photon pulses with random distribution are output. Digital values of peaks of these single-photon pulses are used as the entropy sources of random number generation. In order to reduce the bias of the raw extracted random number, the SHA-256 post processing method based on FPGA is proposed and implemented. When our designed quantum random number generator works at a counting rate of 500 kc/s, 7 random bits can be extracted on average per detected photon, and a random number generation rate of 3.5 Mbit/s is obtained. The random bit sequences are tested by random number test programs ENT and STS. The test results show that the generated random bit sequences fully meet the standards of true random numbers. ©, 2015, Board of Optronics Lasers. All right reserved.