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

Random bits from quantum jumps

Viacheslav N. Chizhevsky, D. B. Horoshko, D. I. Pustakhod, S. Ya. Kilin

Published Jun 15, 2007• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1117/12.752342

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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 have experimentally demonstrated that the random excitation of the linear orthogonal polarization modes of a gain-switched vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) can be used for quantum random number generation. Our VCSEL presents polarization switching under continuous wave operation. Adjusting the modulation conditions and sampling times, both polarization modes of the VCSEL can be excited with equal probability. Random bits are obtained comparing the two orthogonal polarized signals at a sampling time. The random bits obtained pass some of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) statistical tests.
We experimentally study a quantum random number generator based on the random excitation of the linearly polarized modes of a gain-switched vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Our device is characterized by having polarization switching under continuous wave operation. By measuring the linear polarization mode that is excited in each pulse we collect a sufficient number of bits to evaluate if a standard statistical test suite is passed. We consider linear and Von Neumann post-processing methods in order to reduce the bias with different levels of bits rejection. The post-processed bit strings pass all tests in the standard test suite for random number generators provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We finally compare the results obtained with different post-processing functions, including several [ n , k , d ] linear BCH codes. We show that large values of n and k are the best choice to obtain simultaneously improved throughput and randomness.
Random numbers are essential in a great variety of applications ranging from stochastic simulations to secure communications. In this thesis, we report a technique for quantum random number generation based on the dynamics of light polarization in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). We show that two linearly polarized modes with slightly different wavelengths and gains appear within the cavity of the VCSEL laser. Due to spontaneous emission noise, VCSELs undergo random polarization switching at certain bias currents. We experimentally analyze the probability of appearance of each mode as a function of the biasing conditions. By periodically modulating a VCSEL at the polarization switching region defined under continuous-wave operation, random digits can be generated directly from the output of the pulsed VCSEL at a much higher bit rate. The results presented in this research demonstrate the feasibility of generating random numbers at rates up to 100 Mbit/s using a commercial VCSEL.
We propose a simple and all-optical method for fast random number generation based on the laser mode hopping. Through periodically restarting a two-mode laser operating in the bistable state, a random number stream can be generated due to the spontaneous emission noise. To validate the feasibility of this method, we perform a theoretical simulation using the common vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with two polarization modes. Numerical results demonstrate that fast 2.5 Gb/s random number streams can be continuously obtained with verified randomness. This scheme provide a fully monolithic solution for random number generator, due to its simple and all-optical structure.