Performance of Random Number Generators Using Noise-Based Superluminescent Diode and Chaos-Based Semiconductor Lasers

We investigate two optical sources used for random number generation: superluminescent diode (SLD) and semiconductor lasers. Amplified spontaneous emission noise is generated in the SLD and chaotic intensity fluctuation is generated in a semiconductor laser. We investigate the performance of random number generation for both optical sources. For single-bit generation of random numbers, the maximum generation rate is 8.33 Gb/s for both the SLD and the laser with a similar bandwidth of similar to 15 GHz. For multibit generation schemes, we obtain the generation rate up to 400 Gb/s for both the SLD and the laser. The overall characteristics are similar between the SLD and the laser, since similar bandwidths of the RF spectra are used. The probability density function of the SLD is more symmetric than that of the chaotic laser. This fact results in slightly good performance of random number generation using the SLD for multibit generation.