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Physical Review A

Encryption of ghost imaging

Ling‐Jun Kong, Yongnan Li, Sheng-Xia Qian, Simin Li, Chenghou Tu, Hui‐Tian Wang

Published Jul 30, 2013• 50 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose an approach for the optical encryption of ghost images reconstructed from the spatially correlated classical two-beam pairs. This approach has the capability of encrypting ghost images by flexibly manipulating the position correlation of a pair of ``signal'' and ``idler'' beams. We experimentally demonstrate that the perfect ghost image can be extracted by decrypting the encrypted information of an object, in particular, our approach under eavesdropping has a higher security for encryption compared with previous approaches.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.88.013852

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We propose an approach for the optical encryption of ghost images reconstructed from the spatially correlated classical two-beam pairs. This approach has the capability of encrypting ghost images by flexibly manipulating the position correlation of a pair of signal'' and idler'' beams. We experimentally demonstrate that the perfect ghost image can be extracted by decrypting the encrypted information of an object, in particular, our approach under eavesdropping has a higher security for encryption compared with previous approaches.
Ghost imaging can be performed using either quantum or classical states of light that possess strong spatial correlations. In both cases, the image is formed by averaging over many optical events. Here we show that it is possible to distinguish an object from a preestablished basis set of objects by using a small number of position-correlated photon pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The signal photon is incident on one member of a set of spatially nonoverlapping objects. The "ghost" image information is impressed upon the spatially separated idler photon and is extracted by means of holographic filtering and coincidence detection. We were able to distinguish among sets of two and four spatially nonoverlapping objects with confidence levels higher than 87% and 81%, respectively. This method of ghost imaging can be performed in situations requiring extremely low light levels.
An optical encryption scheme based on a ghost imaging system with disordered speckles is proposed to obtain a higher security with a small key. In the scheme, Alice produces the random speckle patterns and obtains the detection results with the help of a computational ghost imaging (CGI) system. Then Alice permutes the order of the random speckle patterns and shares the permutation sequence as a secure key to the authorized users. With the secure key, Bob could recover the object with the principle of the CGI system, whereas, the unauthorized users could not obtain any information of the object. The numerical simulations and experimental results show that the proposed scheme is feasible with a small key, simultaneously, it has a higher security. When the eavesdropping ratio (ER) is less than 40%, the eavesdropper cannot acquire any useful information. Meanwhile, the authorized users could recover completely with the secure key.
We present a proof of principle of a straightforward application of distributed imaging to the efficient encryption of images. The basic idea is to exploit, in a ghost-imaging experiment, the correlations of the fields produced by a chaotically seeded parametric downconversion to deduce a Code for reconstructing the image of the object. As we demonstrate that this Code is smaller than the entire image size, we suggest that this technique can be used for more efficient image encryption by any quantum key. PACS numbers: 42.50.-p, 42.65.Lm, 03.67.Dd, 03.67.Hk Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a direct application of fundamental quantum mechanics, involving two parties, Alice and Bob, exchanging some classical information. By QKD Alice and Bob share secret random keys to implement a secure encryption-decryption algorithm (one-time-pad) without meeting, and the security of the distributed keys is based on the laws of quantum physics [1]. However at variance with classical communication
Ghost imaging was first demonstrated with entangled photon pairs and well-known for its peculiar properties. The signal beam that illuminates the object possesses no spatial resolution, whereas the reference beam, which never interacts with the object, is spatially resolved. Either beam alone cannot retrieve the image, which can only be obtained when the signal and reference beams are correlated. Here we will report a ghost imaging experiment with even more peculiar properties, in which the image can be reconstructed when no photon interacts with the object or even no photon in neither signal nor reference beam. All the photons interacted with the object are discarded. Only the time bins with zero photon are employed to retrieve the image, a process referred to as "ghost imaging with zero photons" hereafter. The reason why ghost image can be retrieved with zero photons is jointly determined by photon-number projection measurement and photon statistics of thermal light. The results are helpful to resolve the debate on the physics of ghost imaging and understand the relation between quantum and classical correlations.
As a computational imaging technology, computational ghost imaging has shown considerable potential for applications in many fields such as secure communication and remote sensing detection. However, the bucket detection value of traditional ghost imaging systems is prone to eavesdropping or tampering during transmission, resulting in information leakage or image distortion. In order to further enhance the security during the imaging process, this paper proposes a scheme for computing ghost imaging based on quantum key encryption. This method uses MATLAB simulation to generate random speckle values and bucket detection values. At the sending end, a QKD system is used to generate a truly random quantum key. The bucket detection value is encrypted using the one-time pad encryption algorithm, and the ciphertext and speckle values are sent to the receiving end through a classical channel; At the receiving end, the bucket detection value is decrypted using the corresponding quantum key, and the reconstruction of the target image is completed by combining the speckle value. Experiments have shown that the encrypted bucket detection value has extremely high security during transmission, and the quality of the decrypted reconstructed image can be measured by the peak signal-to-noise ratio. When the key is accurate, it can reach over 33dB, which is basically consistent with the results obtained from unencrypted imaging.