Comparative Analysis of Bulk and On-chip Architectures for Photonic Random Number Generation

Abstract

This thesis investigates two photonic approaches to random number generation: a bulk-optics quantum RNG using heralded single photons and an on-chip RNG using a pulsed laser and an integrated multimode interferometer. Both systems rely on the branching-path protocol and use the von Neumann extractor to correct bias. While the bulk setup produced high-quality randomness, its low bit rate (~28.7 bps) and sensitivity to alignment limited practicality. The on-chip RNG, with a final rate of ~21 Kbps after double extraction, passed all NIST randomness tests and offered greater stability and scalability. These results highlight the trade-off between leveraging fundamental quantum randomness and achieving practical performance suitable for real-world applications in photonic RNG design.?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????? ?????????????????? bulk-optics ???????????????????? heralded ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? (multimode interferometer) ???????????????????????????????? (branching-path protocol) ???????????????? von Neumann (vN) ??????????????????????????????? ????????????? bulk ?????????????????????????? ???????????????????? (~28.7 bps) ????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????? ~21 Kbps ???????????????????????????????????????????????????? vN ????????????????????????????? NIST ??????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????