Experimental opto-digital processing of multiple data via modulation, packaging and encryption

Abstract

A new opto-digital protocol to handle multiple data in an efficient and secure way is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this method, the optical processor is a 2f system with a ground glass located in its input plane. The 2f system is placed in one arm of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The optically processed data are holographically stored and then filtered, theta modulated and multiplexed to obtain a single package containing all processed data. During the filtering procedure, the non-relevant information contained in the holograms is eliminated. Otherwise, these non-relevant data will introduce noise over the output plane affecting the retrieved objects. In this case, the theta modulation process performed with a grating allows recovering all data without superposition. In order to get the encrypted package a second random phase masks multiplies the package. The recovering procedure consists in multiplying the encrypted package by the complex conjugate of the random phase mask, an after a Fourier transform operation all data are retrieved. In this way, an authorized user recovers all data with a single operation, in the same plane and at the same time without noise or superposition. Experimental results demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposal.