Optical multiple-image authentication and encryption based on phase retrieval and interference with sparsity constraints

Abstract

An optical multiple-image authentication and encryption method based on phase retrieval algorithm (PRA) in the Fresnel domain and interference with sparsity constraints is proposed. In our proposed method, sparse phase and space multiplexing technique are respectively introduced to authentication and encryption for multiple-image. Each target image is respectively encrypted into two phase-only masks, which contain the phase data generated from three binary images by applying PRA in the Fresnel domain and need to be verified before used for decryption. That the target images are respectively reconstructed by using different decryption keys in the proposed method increases the security of the cryptosystem. Numerical simulation shows that the proposed method has high multiplexing capacity and security.