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

Abstract

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.