Superconducting Nanostrip Photon-Number-Resolving Detector as an Unbiased Random Number Generator

Year: 2024

Authors: Ercolano P., Ejrnaes M., Bruscino C., Bukhari SMJ., Salvoni D., Zhang CJ., Huang J., Li H., You LX., Parlato L., Pepe GP.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento Fis, I-80125 Naples, Italy; CNR Natl Inst Opt, I-50125 Florence, Italy; CNR Inst Supercond Innovat Mat & Devices, I-80078 Pozzuoli, Italy; Photon Technol Zhejiang Co Ltd, Jiashan 314100, Peoples R China; Chinese Acad Sci, Shanghai Inst Microsyst & Informat Technol, Shanghai Key Lab Supercond Integrated Circuit Tech, Shanghai 200050, Peoples R China.

Abstract: Detectors capable of resolving the number of photons are essential in many applications, ranging from classic photonics to quantum optics and quantum communication. In particular, photon-number-resolving detectors based on arrays of superconducting nanostrips can offer a high detection efficiency, a low dark count rate, and a recovery time of a few nanoseconds. In this work, we use a detector of this kind for the unbiased generation of random numbers by following two different methods based on the detection of photons. In the former, we exploit the property that the light is equally distributed on each strip of the entire detector, whereas in the latter, we exploit the fact that, for a high average number of photons, the parity of the Poisson distribution of the number of photons emitted by the laser tends to be zero. In addition, since these two methods are independent, it is possible to use them at the same time.

Journal/Review: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON QUANTUM ENGINEERING

Volume: 5      Pages from: 4100808-1  to: 4100808-8

More Information: This work was supported by QUANCOM Project 225521 (MUR PON Ricerca e Innovazione No. 2014-2020 ARS01_00734).
KeyWords: Photonics; Detectors; Strips; Temperature measurement; Superconducting photodetectors; Optical switches; Geometry; Photon-number-resolving detector (PNRD); random number generator; single-photon detector; superconducting photodetector
DOI: 10.1109/TQE.2024.3432070