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Optics and Spectroscopy

Fast generation of random bits based on polarization noises in a semiconductor vertical-cavity laser

Viacheslav N. Chizhevsky

Published Nov 1, 2011• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is experimentally demonstrated that intensity fluctuations on a selected polarization in a semi-conductor vertical-cavity laser are an effective source of entropy for fast generation of random bits. The effective generation rate is shown to be from 100 Mbps to 4.5 Gbps at the discretization frequency of 100 MHz, depending on how the random bits are extracted from the polarization noise. The generated sequences of random bits are characterized by low bias and absence of correlation between bits and successfully pass main statistical randomness tests.

DOI
10.1134/s0030400x11110063

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It is experimentally demonstrated that intensity fluctuations on a selected polarization in a semi-conductor vertical-cavity laser are an effective source of entropy for fast generation of random bits. The effective generation rate is shown to be from 100 Mbps to 4.5 Gbps at the discretization frequency of 100 MHz, depending on how the random bits are extracted from the polarization noise. The generated sequences of random bits are characterized by low bias and absence of correlation between bits and successfully pass main statistical randomness tests.
We propose an implementation of random number generation based on the measurement of polarization mode noise in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL). By measuring the phase difference between two laser beams with perpendicular polarization directions, a 40 Gbps generation speed is achieved with a simple post-processing method. The random sequence we generated passes both the standard statistical test suites (Diehard and NIST-STS) and 3σ criterion. Our setup is compact and easy for implementation, and it also has a better efficiency in extracting randomness from VCSEL compared with existing methods.
Abstract Random number generators (RNGs) are an essential ingredient of modern cryptographic systems. Particular attention is paid today to a special class of RNGs – quantum RNGs, which are attracting close attention of researchers due to the explosive development of quantum key distribution systems, where the use of quantum randomness is a necessary security requirement. A large number of various quantum entropy sources have been proposed over the last 10-15 years. Most of them are based on the use of different quantum optics phenomena, particularly, on the effects occurring in semiconductor lasers. This choice is due to the relatively low cost and ease of use of such devices and the high random bit generation rate available with optical QRNGs. Motivated by these reasons, we study in the present research the QRNG based on variations of light polarization in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The scheme we propose allows creating an extremely compact and fast optical QRNG, consisting essentially of only a laser and a polarizing beam splitter. We revealed that it is possible to ensure the pulsed operation of a VCSEL in a bistable regime, which is characterized by random switch of light polarization. We show, however, that probabilistic properties of such laser pulses significantly depend on the internal laser parameters as well as on its operating mode. Understanding these properties is fundamentally important for the correct assessment of the quantum noise contribution and, consequently, for the subsequent post-processing of digitized random sequences.
An effective and robust method for generating random bits from random time intervals between quantum jumps of optical field is proposed and experimentally tested with spontaneous switchings in a bistable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. This algorithm allows one to avoid the problem of biasing in the output bit stream as well as to obtain low correlation between generated bits. A comprehensive comparative statistical analysis of different methods of extraction of random bits from experimentally measured time intervals between spontaneous polarization switchings in a bistable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser shows the advantage of the proposed method.
We report a characterization of the polarization fluctuations observed when gain-switching vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for quantum random number generation (QRNG) applications. We compare our experimental measurements with the results obtained from a stochastic rate equations model that incorporates the intrinsic parameters of the VCSEL found using the state-of-the-art experimental techniques. The good agreement obtained between our experiments and simulations can be used to establish a validation process that permits to monitor the device behaviour to detect malicious intrusion or malfunctioning of the QRNG. Simulations of the model are used to look for parameters that maximize the QRNG performance. Along this direction we consider the performance when considering a VCSEL with vanishing values of the amplitude and phase anisotropies. We show that in this system the obtained raw bits have a low bias value that is independent on the sampling time chosen to obtain the random bit and on the parameters of the modulation. We also use the simulations of the model to predict the QRNG performance at high modulation frequencies. We show that random bits obtained at several Gbps rates, after appropriate post-processing, fully pass the NIST statistical test.