Random number generator based on an integrated laser with on-chip optical feedback

We discuss the design and testing of a laser integrated with a long on-chip optical feedback section. The device and feedback section have been fabricated on a generic photonic integration platform using only standard building blocks. We have been able to integrate a 10 cm feedback length on a footprint of 5.5 mm2. By controlling the amount of feedback, we achieve chaotic dynamics in the long-cavity regime and show that the resulting dynamics is sufficiently complex in order to generate random bits based on the chaotic intensity fluctuation at a rate of 500 Mbits/s.