Method for physical random number generation using a vertical cavity surface emitting laser
AssigneesFundació Institut De CièNcies FotòNiques, Institució Catalana De Recerca↑Estudis AvançAts
InventorsValerio Pruneri, Carlos Abellan Sanchez, Waldimar Amaya, Morgan Mitchell
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Abstract
A method for physical random number generation includes the steps of: modulating the gain of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser periodically from the lower threshold to the upper threshold and back; maintaining the gain per round trip positive for a longer period than the round trip time of the cavity; maintaining the net gain per round trip negative for a longer period than the round trip time of the cavity, in order to create optical pulses of random amplitude; detecting the optical pulses; converting the optical pulses into electrical analog pulses; and digitising the electrical analog pulses into random numbers.
Claims11
A method comprising:
- periodically modulating a gain of a vertical-cavity surface emitting laser from below a spontaneous emission threshold of the vertical-cavity surface emitting laser to above the spontaneous emission threshold of the vertical-cavity surface emitting laser;
- obtaining an output of optical pulses from the vertical-cavity surface emitting laser, wherein an optical power spectral distribution of the output comprises a spectrum distribution with a predominant lobe at a first wavelength and a side lobe at a second wavelength;
- and
- determining a series of random numbers from a difference between an optical power of the predominant lobe and an optical power of the side lobe.
An apparatus comprising:
- a vertical-cavity surface emitting laser;
- a current source configured to periodically modulate a gain of the vertical-cavity surface emitting laser from below a spontaneous emission threshold of the vertical-cavity surface emitting laser to above the spontaneous emission threshold of the vertical-cavity surface emitting laser;
- a photodiode configured to obtain an output of optical pulses from the vertical-cavity surface emitting laser, wherein an optical power spectral distribution of the output comprises a spectrum distribution with a predominant lobe at a first wavelength and a side lobe at a second wavelength;
- and
- a digitizer a configured to determine a series of random numbers from a difference between an optical power of the predominant lobe and an optical power of the side lobe.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.