Stokes meta-hologram toward optical cryptography

Xuyue Guo, Peng Li (), Jinzhan Zhong, Dandan Wen, Bingyan Wei, Sheng Liu, Shuxia Qi and Jianlin Zhao ()
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Xuyue Guo: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Peng Li: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Jinzhan Zhong: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Dandan Wen: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Bingyan Wei: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Sheng Liu: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Shuxia Qi: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Jianlin Zhao: School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Optical cryptography manifests itself a powerful platform for information security, which involves encrypting secret images into visual patterns. Recently, encryption schemes demonstrated on metasurface platform have revolutionized optical cryptography, as the versatile design concept allows for unrestrained creativity. Despite rapid progresses, most efforts focus on the functionalities of cryptography rather than addressing performance issues, such as deep security, information capacity, and reconstruction quality. Here, we develop an optical encryption scheme by integrating visual cryptography with metasurface-assisted pattern masking, referred to as Stokes meta-hologram. Based on spatially structured polarization pattern masking, Stokes meta-hologram allows multichannel vectorial encryption to mask multiple secret images into unrecognizable visual patterns, and retrieve them following Stokes vector analysis. Further, an asymmetric encryption scheme based on Stokes vector rotation transformation is proposed to settle the inherent problem of the need to share the key in symmetric encryption. Our results show that Stokes meta-hologram can achieve optical cryptography with effectively improved security, and thereby paves a promising pathway toward optical and quantum security, optical communications, and anticounterfeiting.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34542-9

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