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arXiv · 2305.07155

Random number generation using spontaneous symmetry breaking in a Kerr resonator

Liam Quinn·Gang Xu·Yiqing Xu·Zongda Li·Julien Fatome·Stuart G. Murdoch·Stéphane Coen·Miro Erkintalo
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Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate an all-optical random number generator based on spontaneous symmetry breaking in a coherently-driven Kerr resonator. Random bit sequences are generated by repeatedly tuning a control parameter across a symmetry-breaking bifurcation that enacts random selection between two possible steady-states of the system. Experiments are performed in a fibre ring resonator, where the two symmetry-broken steady-states are associated with orthogonal polarization modes. Detrimental biases due to system asymmetries are completely suppressed by leveraging a recently-discovered self-symmetrization phenomenon that ensures the symmetry breaking acts as an unbiased coin toss, with a genuinely random selection between the two available steady-states. We optically generate bits at a rate of over 3~MHz without post-processing and verify their randomness using the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Dieharder statistical test suites.

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Liam Quinn, Gang Xu, Yiqing Xu, Zongda Li, Julien Fatome, Stuart G. Murdoch, Stéphane Coen, Miro Erkintalo. 2023-05-11. Random number generation using spontaneous symmetry breaking in a Kerr resonator. https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.493731

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