Harnessing physical entropy noise in structurally metastable 1T' molybdenum ditelluride for true random number generation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method for true random number generation using conductance noise in 1T' molybdenum ditelluride, which is robust at low temperatures and suitable for secure cryptographic applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel physical entropy source in 1T' MoTe2 for high-speed true random number generation, with potential for practical security applications.

Findings

Noise fits a Poisson process

Enables >1 Mbit/s secure random number generation

Useful for biometric data security in AI

Abstract

True random numbers are essential in various research and engineering problems. Their generation depends upon a robust physical entropy noise. Here, we present true random number generation by harnessing the conductance noise probed in structurally metastable 1T' molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2). The noise, well-fitting a Poisson process, is proved a robust physical entropy noise at low and even cryogenic temperatures. Noise characteristic analysis suggests the noise may originate from the polarization variations of the underlying ferroelectric dipoles in 1T' MoTe2. We demonstrate the noise allows for true random number generation, enabling their use as seed for generating high-throughput secure random numbers exceeding 1 Mbit/s, appealing for practical applications in, for instance, cryptography where data security is now a severe issue. As an example, we show biometric information safeguarding in neural networks by using the random numbers as mask, proving a promising data security measure in big data and artificial intelligence.