corner
corner

Phys. Rev. E 81, 051137 (2010) [4 pages]

Truly random number generation based on measurement of phase noise of a laser

Download: PDF (306 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Hong Guo*, Wenzhuo Tang, Yu Liu, and Wei Wei
CREAM Group, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks (Peking University) and Institute of Quantum Electronics, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Received 21 August 2009; revised 8 March 2010; published 27 May 2010

We present a simple approach to realize truly random number generator based on measuring the phase noise of a single-mode vertical cavity surface emitting laser. The true randomness of the quantum phase noise originates from the spontaneous emission of photons and the random bit generation rate is ultimately limited only by the laser linewidth. With the final bit generation rate of 20 Mbit/s, the truly random bit sequence guaranteed by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics passes the three standard randomness tests (ENT, Diehard, and NIST Statistical Test Suites). Moreover, a continuously generated random bit sequence, with length up to 14 Gbit, is verified by two additional criteria for its true randomness.

© 2010 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.81.051137
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.81.051137
PACS:
05.40.-a, 42.55.Ah, 42.55.Px

*Corresponding author; hongguo@pku.edu.cn