Secure optical system that uses fully phase-based encryption and lithium niobate crystal as phase contrast filter for decryption

In this paper, the implementation of a secure optical system using fully phase encryption is described. A two-dimensional phase image obtained from an amplitude image is encrypted and decrypted by using a spatial light modulator working in phase mode. The fully phase encryption is achieved using double random phase encoding. The encrypted image is holographically recorded in a photorefractive crystal and is then decrypted by generating, through phase conjugation, the conjugate of the encrypted image. A lithium niobate crystal has been used as a phase contrast filter to change the decrypted phase image into an amplitude image, thus alleviating the need for alignment of the phase contrast set-up in the Fourier plane. Simulation results are provided to verify the proposed study. The mean square error between the primary image and decrypted image has been calculated to study the sensitivity of the system.