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

Publication

Fig. 2. Comparison between the correlation dimension and RF Spectrum for (a,b) [4.70, 5.50] mA and (c,d) [9.37, 9.99] mA. Green dotted lines indicate sudden changes in the RF-spectrum and correlation dimension.

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.

Citation

Yohann G. Sanvert, Jules Mercadier, Stefan Bittner, and Marc Sciamanna, « Random number generation from a self-chaotic broad-area VCSEL, » Opt. Lett. 51, 3405-3408 (2026)
https://opg.optica.org/ol/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-51-12-3405

https://hal.science/SUP_LMOPS/hal-05653080v1