Interferometric photodetection in silicon photonics for phase diffusion quantum entropy sources.

We report the interferometric photodetection of a phase-diffusion quantum entropy source in a silicon photonics chip. The device uses efficient and robust single-laser accelerated phase diffusion methods, and implements the unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer with optimized splitting ratio and photodetection, in a 0.5 mm×1 mm footprint. We demonstrate Gbps raw entropy-generation rates in a technology compatible with conventional CMOS fabrication techniques.