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IEEE Photonics Technology Letters

Controllable Optical Vortex Array for Image Encoding

Praveen Kumar, Naveen Kumar Nishchal, Ayman Alfalou

Published Apr 21, 2022• 50 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical cryptosystems mostly use spatial distributions of amplitude, phase, and polarization of light to encrypt two-dimensional data/image. In this letter, we demonstrate the use of light carrying an array of optical vortices for image encryption. Spatially concatenated orthogonal states of optical vortices allow high-dimensional encoding and minimize the quality degradation during practical implementation. These features offer an efficient way to design an optical cryptosystem.

DOI
10.1109/lpt.2022.3169011

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Optical cryptosystems mostly use spatial distributions of amplitude, phase, and polarization of light to encrypt two-dimensional data/image. In this letter, we demonstrate the use of light carrying an array of optical vortices for image encryption. Spatially concatenated orthogonal states of optical vortices allow high-dimensional encoding and minimize the quality degradation during practical implementation. These features offer an efficient way to design an optical cryptosystem.
In recent years, optical information processing has become increasingly important due to its ability to handle large amounts of data efficiently. Amplitude, phase, spatial frequency, wavelength, and polarization are the physical dimensions used for information encoding into the light beam. Information encoding using orbital angular momentum (OAM) carried by a vortex beam is gaining interest in this regard. Such beams provide high-dimensional orthogonal states for encoding and have shown more stability in turbulent media than Gaussian beams, especially in the case of free space propagation. This study demonstrates an image encryption method utilizing an array of OAM light modes. The approach uses a non-interferometric intensity recording-based encoding scheme, which offers ease of implementation. Quick response codes have been utilized for encoding to avoid information loss from non-uniform distribution of light and aberrations. The encryption scheme is highly secure because the encrypted light beam contains only partial information about the object, preventing complete information retrieval without proper key information.
Structured light carrying optical vortices have gained significant attention in information security as they offer high-dimensional orthogonal states for encoding. These states are usually associated with the orbital angular momentum of light. In this letter, we demonstrate a novel method for binary image encryption using structured phase encoding. The structured phase is obtained by multiple lattices of spatially distributed phase singularity points with varying azimuthal indices. It has been shown that data encoding using orthogonal sets of optical vortex modes enable noise-free decryption and provide robustness against atmospheric turbulence in short propagation distance.
Optical vortices carrying orbital angular momentum have drawn much attention because they provide high-dimensional encoding. Employing an array of optical vortices, we demonstrate an authentication verification system. For security authentication, an exclusive-OR logic operation has been implemented employing a light beam consisting of an array of vortices. A liquid crystal spatial light modulator has been used to generate orthogonal states of optical vortices. The proposed technique can provide a secure method of authentication with straightforward implementation. We have presented simulation and experimental results to verify the proposed scheme.
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Our goal is to enhance the security level of a Fourier optical encryption system. Therefore we propose a Mach–Zehnder interferometer based encryption setup. The input data is organized in a binary array, and it is encoded in the two wave fronts propagated in the arms of the interferometer. Both input wave fronts are independently encrypted by Fourier systems, hence the proposed method has two encryption keys. During decryption, the encrypted wave fronts are propagated through the interferometer setup. The interference pattern of the output shows the reconstructed data in cases where the correct decryption Fourier keys are used. We propose a novel input image modulation method with a user defined phase parameter. We show that the security level of the proposed cryptosystem can be enhanced by an optimally chosen phase parameter.
Optical systems as information processing systems have become quite impressive recently in optical image encryption and watermarking. Benefits of optical systems over the electronic counterparts are that optical processing provides the maximum number of degrees of freedom, and that optical encryption is ideal for information stored in holographic media. Various schemes have been proposed in the last decade. In this article, we review the recent progress and patents in this field, and point out some challenges that might lead to practical optical information security systems Keywords: Double random phase encoding, holography, information security, Optical encryption, phase retrieval, Optical systems, multidimensional information s, spatial coherence, polarization, Optical image encryption, cryptosystem, discrete fractional fourier transform, encoding technique, micro-optics system, decryption method