All-optical random number generation using highly nonlinear fibers by numerical simulation

A new scheme of all-optical random number generation based on the nonlinear effects in highly nonlinear fibers (HNLF) is proposed. The scheme is comprised of ultra-wide band chaotic entropy source, all-optical sampler, all-optical comparator and all-optical exclusive-or (XOR), which are mainly realized by four-wave mixing (FWM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) in highly nonlinear fibers. And we achieve 10 Gbit/s random numbers through numerically simulating all the processes. The entire operations are completed in the all-optical domain, which may overcome the bottleneck problem of electronic devices, and apply directly in high-speed all-optical communication network.