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An optical ultrafast random bit generator

Nature Photonics volume 4, pages 58–61 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

The generation of random bit sequences based on non-deterministic physical mechanisms is of paramount importance for cryptography and secure communications. High data rates also require extremely fast generation rates and robustness to external perturbations. Physical generators based on stochastic noise sources have been limited in bandwidth to ∼100 Mbit s−1 generation rates. We present a physical random bit generator, based on a chaotic semiconductor laser, having time-delayed self-feedback, which operates reliably at rates up to 300 Gbit s−1. The method uses a high derivative of the digitized chaotic laser intensity and generates the random sequence by retaining a number of the least significant bits of the high derivative value. The method is insensitive to laser operational parameters and eliminates the necessity for all external constraints such as incommensurate sampling rates and laser external cavity round trip time. The randomness of long bit strings is verified by standard statistical tests.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the RBG and examples of digitized data.
Figure 2: Correlations of the signal amplitude.
Figure 3: Histogram of the digitized laser intensity.
Figure 4: Statistical bias in the random sequence.
Figure 5: Dependence of bit generation rate on the order of derivative.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Minerva Center and Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel

    Ido Kanter

  2. Department of Physics, The Jack and Pearl Resnick Institute for Advanced Technology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel

    Yaara Aviad, Igor Reidler, Elad Cohen & Michael Rosenbluh

Authors
  1. Ido Kanter
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  2. Yaara Aviad
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  3. Igor Reidler
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  4. Elad Cohen
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  5. Michael Rosenbluh
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Contributions

I.K., Y.A., I.R. and M.R. contributed to the planning, experimentation, data analysis and writing of the manuscript. E.C. contributed to the data analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ido Kanter.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kanter, I., Aviad, Y., Reidler, I. et al. An optical ultrafast random bit generator. Nature Photon 4, 58–61 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.235

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