Optical encryption in spatially-incoherent light using two LC SLMs for both information input and encryption element imaging

At present time methods of optical encryption are actively developed. The majority of existing methods of optical encryption use not only light intensity distribution, easily registered with photosensors, but also its phase distribution which require application of complex holographic schemes in conjunction with spatially coherent monochromatic illumination. This leads to complex optical schemes and low decryption quality. To eliminate these disadvantages it is possible to implement optical encryption using spatially incoherent monochromatic illumination which requires registration of light intensity distribution only. Encryption is accomplished by means of optical convolution of image of scene to be encrypted and encryption diffractive optical element (DOE) point spread function (PSF) which serves as encryption key. Encryption process is described as follows. Scene is illuminated with spatially-incoherent monochromatic light. In the absence of encryption DOE lens forms image of scene in photosensor plane. DOE serves as encryption element, its PSF - encryption key. Light passing through DOE forms convolution of object image and DOE PSF. Registered by photosensor convolution is encrypted image. Decryption was conducted numerically on computer by means of inverse filtration with regularization. Kinoforms were used as encryption DOE because they have single diffraction order. Two liquid crystal (LC) spatial light modulators (SLM) were used to implement dynamic digital information input and dynamic encryption key change. As input scene amplitude LC SLM HoloEye LC2002 with 800×600 pixels 32×32 μm2 and 256 gray levels was used. To image synthesized encryption kinoforms phase LC SLM HoloEye PLUTO VIS with 1920×1080 pixels 8×8 μm2 and 256 phase levels was used. Set of test images was successfully optically encrypted and then numerically decrypted. Encrypted images contents are hidden. Decrypted images despite quite high noise levels are positively recognizable. Results of optical encryption and numerical decryption are presented.