16.8 Tb/s True Random Number Generator Based on Amplified Spontaneous Emission

We report a 16.8 Tb/s true random number generator (TRNG) based on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) of Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), which is sliced into 42 parallel channels by an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG). The true randomness of ASE is enhanced and guaranteed by a novel extraction approach utilizing two orthogonal polarized components of ASE. Consequently, the random number generation rate (RNGR) can be significantly increased via higher sampling rate. The experimental results show that, the single-channel RNGR of 400 Gb/s is achieved, while the overall RNGR is 16.8 Tb/s for the full ASE spectrum. The proposed TRNG is of great significance in the field of secret key distribution and confidential communication.