We present an optical quantum random number generator based on vacuum fluctuation measurements that uses multi-mode coherent states generated by electro-optical phase modulation of an intense optical carrier. In this approach the weak coherent multi-mode state (or a vacuum state) interferes with the carrier, which acts as a local oscillator, on each side mode independently. The proposed setup can effectively compensate for deviations between the two arms of a balanced detector by controlling the modulation index of the electro-optical phase modulator. We perform a proof-of-principle experiment and demonstrate random number generation with a possibility of real-time randomness extraction at the rate of 400 Mbit/s.
@article{arxiv.2004.06552,
title = {Vacuum-based quantum random number generator using multi-mode coherent states},
author = {E. O. Samsonov and B. E. Pervushin and A. E. Ivanova and A. A. Santev and V. I. Egorov and S. M. Kynev and A. V. Gleim},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.06552},
year = {2020}
}