Reconfigurable Integrated Optical Interferometer Network-Based Physically Unclonable Function

TL;DR

This paper presents a large integrated optical interferometer network that functions as a physically unclonable function, leveraging inherent randomness for secure applications and demonstrating a vast number of challenge-response pairs.

Contribution

The authors introduce a reconfigurable integrated optical interferometer network as a physically unclonable function with a high number of challenge-response pairs, highlighting its potential for secure photonic applications.

Findings

Approximately 6.85x10^35 challenge-response pairs identified.

Device exhibits intrinsic unclonability due to tunable interferometric properties.

Prototype demonstrates practical reconfigurability and randomness for security use.

Abstract

In this article we describe the characteristics of a large integrated linear optical device containing Mach-Zehnder interferometers and describe its potential use as a physically unclonable function. We propose that any tunable interferometric device of practical scale will be intrinsically unclonable and will possess an inherent randomness that can be useful for many practical applications. The device under test has the additional use-case as a general-purpose photonic manipulation tool, with various applications based on the experimental results of our prototype. Once our tunable interferometric device is set to work as a physically unclonable function, we find that there are approximately 6.85x10E35 challenge-response pairs, where each challenge can be quickly reconfigured by tuning the interferometer array for subsequent challenges.