Massive and parallel 10 Tbit/s physical random bit generation with chaotic microcomb.

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Engineering
• Information Security and Cryptography
• Integrated Optics

Background:

• Ultrafast physical random bit (PRB) generators are crucial for various scientific and technological applications.
• Existing PRB schemes face challenges in achieving high data rates and scalability.
• Integrated photonic devices offer a promising platform for compact and efficient PRB generation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally demonstrate a novel PRB generation scheme utilizing a chaotic microcomb on a chip-scale integrated resonator.
• To achieve ultra-high random bit generation rates through parallel processing of multiple microcomb teeth.
• To validate the quality of the generated random bits using rigorous statistical tests.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a chip-scale integrated resonator to generate a chaotic microcomb.
• Utilizing each tooth of the microcomb as an independent entropy source for PRB generation.
• Post-processing of the generated signals to ensure randomness and passing NIST statistical tests.
• Experimentally realizing microcombs with different free spectral ranges (FSRs) to explore scalability.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a PRB scheme achieving 12 Gbits/s per channel, passing NIST SP 800-22 tests.
• Achieved a total PRB rate of approximately 4 Tbits/s using a microcomb with 294 teeth (100 GHz FSR).
• Realized denser microcombs (33.6 GHz FSR) with 805 teeth, yielding a total PRB rate of approximately 10 Tbits/s.
• The generated random bits covered a broad wavelength range (1430-1675 nm).

Conclusions:

• The chaotic microcomb-based PRB scheme offers a scalable and high-parallelism solution for ultra-high-speed random bit generation.
• This chip-scale approach provides a low-cost pathway towards Pbits/s physical random bit generation.
• The demonstrated technology has significant potential for applications requiring high-quality, high-rate random numbers.