Masanobu Inubushi

Real-time fast physical random number generator with a photonic integrated circuit

Random number generators are essential for applications in information security and numerical simulations. Most optical-chaos-based random number generators produce random bit sequences by offline post-processing with large optical components. We demonstrate a real-time hardware implementation of a fast physical random number generator with a photonic integrated circuit and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) electronic board. We generate 1-Tbit random bit sequences and evaluate their statistical randomness using NIST Special Publication 800-22 and TestU01. All of the BigCrush tests in TestU01 are passed using 410-Gbit random bit sequences. A maximum real-time generation rate of 21.1 Gb/s is achieved for random bit sequences in binary format stored in a computer, which can be directly used for applications involving secret keys in cryptography and random seeds in large-scale numerical simulations.

Reservoir Computing Beyond Memory-Nonlinearity Trade-off

Reservoir computing is a brain-inspired machine learning framework that employs a signal-driven dynamical system, in particular harnessing common-signal-induced synchronization which is a widely observed nonlinear phenomenon. Basic understanding of a working principle in reservoir computing can be expected to shed light on how information is stored and processed in nonlinear dynamical systems, potentially leading to progress in a broad range of nonlinear sciences. As a first step toward this goal, from the viewpoint of nonlinear physics and information theory, we study the memory-nonlinearity trade-off uncovered by Dambre et al. (2012). Focusing on a variational equation, we clarify a dynamical mechanism behind the trade-off, which illustrates why nonlinear dynamics degrades memory stored in dynamical system in general. Moreover, based on the trade-off, we propose a mixture reservoir endowed with both linear and nonlinear dynamics and show that it improves the performance of information processing. Interestingly, for some tasks, significant improvements are observed by adding a few linear dynamics to the nonlinear dynamical system. By employing the echo state network model, the effect of the mixture reservoir is numerically verified for a simple function approximation task and for more complex tasks.

Dynamics Versus Feedback Delay Time in Photonic Integrated Circuits: Mapping the Short Cavity Regime

We report a comprehensive experimental investigation of the nonlinear dynamics yielded in five photonic integrated circuits, each consisting of a semiconductor laser with optical feedback from a short external cavity. The external cavity lengths are different for each laser and range from 1.3 to 10.3 mm, allowing analysis of the dependence of the dynamical scenario on the feedback delay time. We draw two-dimensional bifurcation diagrams and study the relative predominance of the different dynamics exhibited in each laser when the feedback strength and the laser injection current are varied. We identify that, in the commonly termed short cavity regime, small variations of the external cavity length can result in totally different dynamical distributions, suggesting the possibility to use the feedback delay time as a means to control laser behaviors.

Random Number Generation From Intermittent Optical Chaos

We propose a method to generate physical random numbers based on intermittent optical chaos. Intermittent chaotic output is produced in a semiconductor laser subjected to optical feedback embedded in a photonic integrated circuit. This dynamics is characterized by a temporal waveform organized in a succession of laminar regions of low amplitude and bursts of high amplitude. The temporal randomness ruling the alternation of successive laminar regions and bursts is used as an entropy source to generate sequences of random bits. We compare the performances of the exclusive OR and reverse methods implemented in the bit generation process and evaluate the quality of the random bits with the Rabbit test of TestU01 for different bit sequences lengths.

Physical implementation of oblivious transfer using optical correlated randomness

We demonstrate physical implementation of information-theoretic secure oblivious transfer based on bounded observability using optical correlated randomness in semiconductor lasers driven by common random light broadcast over optical fibers. We demonstrate that the scheme can achieve one-out-of-two oblivious transfer with effective key generation rate of 110 kb/s. The results show that this scheme is a promising approach to achieve information-theoretic secure oblivious transfer over long distances for future applications of secure computation such as privacy-preserving database mining, auctions and electronic-voting.

Common-signal-induced synchronization in photonic integrated circuits and its application to secure key distribution

We experimentally achieve common-signal-induced synchronization in two photonic integrated circuits with short external cavities driven by a constant-amplitude random-phase light. The degree of synchronization can be controlled by changing the optical feedback phase of the two photonic integrated circuits. The change in the optical feedback phase leads to a significant redistribution of the spectral energy of optical and RF spectra, which is a unique characteristic of PICs with the short external cavity. The matching of the RF and optical spectra is necessary to achieve synchronization between the two PICs, and stable synchronization can be obtained over an hour in the presence of optical feedback. We succeed in generating information-theoretic secure keys and achieving the final key generation rate of 184 kb/s using the PICs.

Common-Signal-Induced Synchronization in Semiconductor Lasers With Broadband Optical Noise Signal

We experimentally observe common-signal-induced synchronization between two semiconductor lasers driven by a broadband optical noise signal. We use a super-luminescent diode as a source of the optical noise signal, whose bandwidth is over THz. Synchronization is achieved even without injection locking between the drive noise signal and the semiconductor lasers; however, the optical wavelengths of the two semiconductor lasers need to be precisely matched. We investigate the parameter dependence of synchronization on the injection strength of the drive signal and the relaxation oscillation frequency of the semiconductor lasers. We apply optical band-pass-filters to change the bandwidth of the noise signal, and investigate the quality of synchronization. We found that high-quality synchronization can be achieved when the bandwidth of the optical spectra of the semiconductor lasers are within the bandwidth of the optical noise signal.

Dynamics-dependent synchronization in on-chip coupled semiconductor lasers

Synchronization properties of chaotic dynamics in two mutually coupled semiconductor lasers with optical feedback embedded in a photonic integrated circuit are investigated from the point of view of their dynamical content. A phenomenon in which the two lasers can show qualitatively different synchronization properties according to the frequency range of investigation and their nonlinear dynamics is identified and termed dynamics-dependent synchronization. In-phase synchronization is observed for original signals and antiphase synchronization is observed for low-pass filtered signals in the case where one of the lasers shows chaotic oscillations while the other laser exhibits low-frequency fluctuations dynamics. The experimental conditions causing the synchronization states to vary according to the considered frequency interval are studied and the key roles of asymmetric coupling strength and injection currents are clarified.