Fast generation of random bits based on polarization noises in a semiconductor vertical-cavity laser

It is experimentally demonstrated that intensity fluctuations on a selected polarization in a semi-conductor vertical-cavity laser are an effective source of entropy for fast generation of random bits. The effective generation rate is shown to be from 100 Mbps to 4.5 Gbps at the discretization frequency of 100 MHz, depending on how the random bits are extracted from the polarization noise. The generated sequences of random bits are characterized by low bias and absence of correlation between bits and successfully pass main statistical randomness tests.