Incoherent fibre supercontinuum generation for all-optical random number generation

Here we propose a novel complementary concept of all-optical technique that might dramatically increase the generation rate of random bits by using simultaneously multiple spectral channels with uncorrelated signals somewhat similar to use of wave-division-multiplexing in communications. We propose to exploit the intrinsic nonlinear dynamics of extreme spectral broadening and supercontinuum (SC) generation in optical fibre, a process known to be often associated with non-deterministic fluctuations [2]. In this paper, we report proof-of concept results indicating that the fluctuations in highly nonlinear fibre SC generation can potentially be used for random number generation.