QUANTUM RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR (QRNG)

Jan. 3, 2021

The DRDO Young Scientist Laboratory for Quantum Technologies (DYSL-QT), a DRDO facility based in Mumbai, has developed a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) which has the ability to detect random quantum events and convert those into a stream of binary digits.

About:

The Laboratory has developed a fibre-optic branch path based QRNG.
Branch path based QRNG is based on the principle that if a single photon is incident on a balanced beam splitter, it will take either of the beam-splitter output paths randomly.
As the path chosen by photon is random, the randomness is translated to sequence of bits.

Significance:

With this development India enters the club of countries who have the technology to achieve the generation of random numbers based on the Quantum Phenomenon.
Random numbers have essential roles in various fields ranging from quantum communication, cryptography applications like key generation, key wrapping, authentication along with scientific simulations, lotteries and fundamental physics experiments.
The generation of perfect randomness is generally considered impossible with classical methodologies.
Quantum mechanics has the inherent potential of providing true random numbers and thus has become the preferred option for scientific applications requiring randomness.

Source : Indian Express