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arXiv:quant-ph/0609043 · Review of Scientific Instruments

Quantum random number generator based on photonic emission in semiconductors

Mario Stipčević, B. Medved Rogina

Published Apr 1, 2007• 198 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report upon the realization of a novel fast nondeterministic random number generator whose randomness relies on the intrinsic randomness of the quantum physical processes of photonic emission in semiconductors and subsequent detection by the photoelectric effect. Timing information of detected photons is used to generate binary random digits-bits. The bit extraction method based on the restartable clock method theoretically eliminates both bias and autocorrelation while reaching efficiency of almost 0.5 bits per random event. A prototype has been built and statistically tested.

DOI
10.1063/1.2720728

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We report upon the realization of a novel fast nondeterministic random number generator whose randomness relies on the intrinsic randomness of the quantum physical processes of photonic emission in semiconductors and subsequent detection by the photoelectric effect. Timing information of detected photons is used to generate binary random digits-bits. The bit extraction method based on the restartable clock method theoretically eliminates both bias and autocorrelation while reaching efficiency of almost 0.5 bits per random event. A prototype has been built and statistically tested.
Quantum random number generators can deliver entropy based on inherently non-deterministic physical phenomena, which is essential for applications where quality randomness is needed (e.g. in cryptography). Our generator based on photon time-of-arrival exploits the randomness of light emission in semiconductors. To measure the time between detections we use a continuous (non-restartable) clock for time tagging, which permits simpler hardware but produces slightly different output from the optimal exponential distribution. To handle this and produce quality output, we use Toeplitz hashing based bit generation after modeling and calculating a lower bound of extractable min-entropy for the general case of this generation scheme with a continuous clock. We produced uniformly distributed output bits with our setup, while also reaching a generation efficiency of 9.75 output bits per 16-bit input record, which is an improvement to our previously used method. Our generator has also been statistically tested using four of the popular statistical test suites.
We propose what we believe to be a new approach to nondeterministic random-number generation. The randomness originated from the uncorrelated nature of consecutive laser pulses with Poissonian photon statistics and that of photon number detections is used to generate random bit, and the von Neumann correction method is used to extract the final random bit. This method is proved to be bias free in randomness generation, provided that the single photon detections are mutually independent. Further, it has the advantage in fast random bit generation, since no postprocessing is needed. A true random-number generator based on this method is realized, and its randomness is tested and guaranteed using three statistical test batteries.
Here we present a new fast two-bit quantum random number generator based on the intrinsic randomness of the quantum physical phenomenon of photon statistics of coherent light source. Two-bit random numbers were generated according to the number of detected photons in each light pulse by a photon-number-resolving detector. Poissonian photon statistics of the coherent light source guaranteed the complete randomness of the bit sequences. Multi-bit true random numbers were generated for the first time based on the multi-photon events from a coherent light source.
We demonstrate a novel high speed and multi-bit optical quantum random number generator by continuously measuring arrival time of photons with a common starting point. To obtain the unbiased and post-processing free random bits, the measured photon arrival time is converted into the sum of integral multiple of a fixed period and a phase time. Theoretical and experimental results show that the phase time is an independent and uniform random variable. A random bit extraction method by encoding the phase time is proposed. An experimental setup has been built and the unbiased random bit generation rate could reach 128 Mb/s, with random bit generation efficiency of 8 bits per detected photon. The random numbers passed all tests in the statistical test suite.
We report upon the realization of a novel multi-bit optical quantum random number generator by continuously measuring the arrival positions of photon emitted from a LED using MCP-based WSA photon counting imaging detector. A spatial encoding method is proposed to extract multi-bits random number from the position coordinates of each detected photon. The randomness of bits sequence relies on the intrinsic randomness of the quantum physical processes of photonic emission and subsequent photoelectric conversion. A prototype has been built and the random bit generation rate could reach 8 Mbit/s, with random bit generation efficiency of 16 bits per detected photon. FPGA implementation of Huffman coding is proposed to reduce the bias of raw extracted random bits. The random numbers passed all tests for physical random number generator.