Quantum random number generation using an on-chip nanowire plasmonic waveguide

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a compact, high-rate quantum random number generator using an on-chip nanowire plasmonic waveguide, achieving significant speed improvements and miniaturization over previous photonic-based devices.

Contribution

It introduces the integration of a nanoscale plasmonic waveguide into a quantum random number generator, enabling higher rates and smaller device footprints.

Findings

Achieved a 14.4 Mbit/s random number rate with low light intensity.

Increased rate to 41.4 Mbit/s with higher light intensity, passing industry tests.

Demonstrated successful on-chip integration of plasmonic components into quantum RNGs.

Abstract

Quantum random number generators employ the inherent randomness of quantum mechanics to generate truly unpredictable random numbers, which are essential in cryptographic applications. While a great variety of quantum random number generators have been realised using photonics, few exploit the high-field confinement offered by plasmonics, which enables device footprints an order of magnitude smaller in size. Here we integrate an on-chip nanowire plasmonic waveguide into an optical time-of-arrival based quantum random number generation setup. Despite loss, we achieve a random number generation rate of 14.4 Mbits/s using low light intensity, with the generated bits passing industry standard tests without post-processing. By increasing the light intensity, we were then able to increase the generation rate to 41.4 Mbits/s, with the resulting bits only requiring a shuffle to pass all tests. This is an order of magnitude increase in the generation rate and decrease in the device size compared to previous work. Our experiment demonstrates the successful integration of an on-chip nanoscale plasmonic component into a quantum random number generation setup. This may lead to new opportunities in compact and scalable quantum random number generation.