High-Capacity and Security-Enhanced Orbital Angular Momentum Multiplexing Holography Based on Helico-Conical Beams

Abstract Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams hold significant promise for multiplexing holographic systems, which can be attributed to their vortex phase characteristics and theoretically unbounded orthogonal modes. However, the performance of conventional OAM-based holography is degraded by critical issues including limited channel density, interchannel crosstalk, and security vulnerabilities. To address these issues, we demonstrate an OAM multiplexing holographic system leveraging helico-conical beams (HCBs). By extending integer HCBs to fractional orders, we achieve higher-density holographic channels through hybrid-parameter modulation while preserving superior reconstruction quality. Moreover, the inherent asymmetry of HCBs enables azimuthal multiplexing, leading to a substantial increase in the system capacity. A further advancement involves the deliberate relaxation of the conventional quantitative constraint on the sampling criterion, which serves to prevent unauthorized interception of sensitive data. Experimental results validate high-fidelity information reconstruction and robust encryption performance, laying a solid foundation for practical holographic systems. This work provides a viable pathway toward high-capacity, secure optical information storage and encryption, offering promising applications in next-generation data storage and processing.