Petabit-per-second Random Number Generation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a petabit-per-second parallel random number generator using chaotic microcombs and Rayleigh scattering, achieving unprecedented bit rates and scalability for high-speed randomness generation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme combining intensity chaotic modulation and Rayleigh scattering to significantly enhance bandwidth and reduce correlation in microcomb-based RNGs.

Findings

Single-channel bit rate of 14.336 Tbit/s

Total bit rate of 1.032 Pbit/s over 72 channels

Correlation among channels suppressed to ~0.02

Abstract

Physical random number generators based on chaotic microcombs, with their complex nonlinear dynamics and multi-channel parallel capability, have attracted considerable research attention. However, key technical challenges for chaotic microcombs are the high correlation between symmetric teeth and the low bandwidth of single-channel teeth, which seriously affect the speed and scalability of random number generation. We experimentally demonstrate a petabit-per-second (Pbit/s) parallel random number generation system based on intensity chaotic modulation and Rayleigh scattering. Through intensity modulation, the effective bandwidth of the single-channel entropy source is increased from 440MHz to 27.6GHz. Crucially, Rayleigh scattering further contributes through the random superposition of backscattered light, which introduces unpredictable fluctuations in intensity, phase, and polarization. This randomness suppresses inter-channel correlation among parallel entropy sources to ~0.02, ensuring their orthogonality. Moreover, by employing polarization-diverse coherent detection on a single-channel, four new low correlated sub-channels are extracted: X-/Y- intensity and phase. We achieve a single-channel bit rate of 14.336 Tbit/s and a total bit rate of 1.032 Pbit/s (over 72 parallel channels) with offline post-processing, representing the highest post-processing record reported in both the single-channel and the total system. Moreover, our scheme based on a single chaotic microcomb and fiber scattering link show fundamentally scalable. The total bit rate can be significantly pushed beyond the Pbit/s level by further expanding the usable comb channel and/or by deploying multiple fiber scattering links in parallel, paving a practical path toward higher throughput regimes.