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arXiv · 2604.06152

Random number generation from a self-chaotic broad-area VCSEL

Yohann G. Sanvert·Jules Mercadier·Stefan Bittner·Marc Sciamanna
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Abstract

The nonlinear dynamics of transverse and polarization modes of a broad-area vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (BA-VCSEL) exhibit, without any external perturbation, chaos with high correlation dimension, large bandwidth (BW), and good spectral flatness over a wide range of currents. We leverage this for high bit-rate entropy generation and random number generation (RNG), passing the NIST tests with rates up to 150~Gb/s, and observe a correlation between the correlation dimension and the number of passed NIST tests. The RNG shows consistent performance across a wide range of parameters. In contrast to other setups, our system does not require optical feedback or optical injection to generate chaos, making it simple, compact and robust.

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Yohann G. Sanvert, Jules Mercadier, Stefan Bittner, Marc Sciamanna. 2026-04-07. Random number generation from a self-chaotic broad-area VCSEL. https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.601238

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