Plasma Discharge as a Hardware Quantum Random Number Generator: From Atmospheric DBD to Hall Thruster Iodine Plasma

We demonstrate that plasma discharge — in both atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and Hall effect thruster (HET) iodine plasma configurations — constitutes a practical hardware quantum random number generator (QRNG). A $35 atmospheric DBD device using a flyback transformer recovered from a discarded CRT television generates a physical entropy stream satisfying NIST SP 800-90B requirements. A zero-additional-cost iodine plasma QRNG derived from the GHT-1 Hall effect thruster uses its existing INA219 I²C current sensor to harvest quantum entropy from the 200V DC iodine discharge — giving the thruster a dual function as both propulsion system and flight-grade QRNG. Both implementations produce output satisfying NIST SP 800-22. Complete open-hardware designs are provided.