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Optical image encryption using partially coherent light generated by structured illumination

Cristian Hernando Acevedo, Aristide C. Dogariu

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Information encryption is a crucial aspect of security. We demonstrate that structured fields can be used as a robust encryption key for free-space optical encoding systems as physical unclonable functions.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_si.2025.ss118_5

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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.
The rapid globalization of the digital ecosystem has elevated information security to a critical concern in modern society. Optical encryption offers an effective approach for enhancing information protection; however, existing optical encryption strategies are unable to reliably recover encrypted information following free-space transmission. To address this challenge, we propose a novel protocol named the optical coherence engineering encryption protocol (OCE-Encryption Protocol). By jointly manipulating the optical coherence structure and introducing astigmatic phase modulation, the protocol generates a spectral intensity ciphertext capable of secure free-space transmission. At the receiver, the original information can be accurately reconstructed by measuring the optical coherence structure of the received ciphertext and applying the correct decryption key. Furthermore, the proposed protocol demonstrates strong resilience to transmission channel disturbances. We hope that optical coherence engineering can expand the functional boundaries of existing optical encryption protocols and provide a pathway toward next-generation secure optical communication systems.
Optical physical unclonable functions (PUFs) have emerged as a promising cryptographic primitive for next-generation security. However, to harmonize with various modern networks, conventional optical PUF is inadequate due to a rigid key space with a fixed specification. This study implements hierarchically controllable randomness sources for multi-level key generation, exploiting speckle characteristics. By adjusting illumination diameter, the speckle size can be modulated, allowing the extraction of three-level keys with various lengths: 64, 256, and 1,024 bits. Performance evaluation reveals that all levels are superb in uniformity, uniqueness, reproducibility, and randomness. Moreover, it is proposed two feasible applications. The first is a hierarchical authentication architecture that spans from Internet of Things (IoT) devices to sensitive information, balancing security and resources. The second is a multi-stage image encryption algorithm, exhibiting holocryptic performance superior to conventional XOR-based encryption. This versatile platform sets a new paradigm for optical PUF, establishing a foundation for robust and expandable next-generation security.
In this paper, we propose a new asymmetric cryptosystem for phase image encryption, using the physically unclonable functions (PUFs) as security keys. For encryption, the original amplitude image is first converted into a phase image and modulated with a PUF to obtain a complex image. This complex image is then illuminated with a plane wave, and the complex wavefront at a distance d is recorded. The real part of the complex wavefront is further processed to obtain the encrypted image and the imaginary part is kept as the private key. The polar decomposition approach is utilized to generate two more private security keys and to enable the multi-user capability in the cryptosystem. Numerical simulations confirm the feasibility of the proposed method.