Experimental multiplexing protocol to encrypt messages of any length

Abstract

As optical systems are diffraction limited, it is not possible to encrypt in a single step texts containing a large amount of characters. We overcome this situation by separately encrypting several characters, along with a multiplexing procedure to obtain an encrypted keyboard. The experimental application is performed in a joint transform correlator architecture and using digital holography. We combine the different characters into a keyboard encrypted with a single phase mask together with a selection-position key that gives the right sequence to recover safe encrypted messages. The multiplexing operation we suggest is advantageous in the sense that the technique enables processing of messages that otherwise the optical system could not process in a single step. We also employ a repositioning technique to prevent both the natural background noise over recovered characters and the possible cross talk. The lack of any single key avoids the correct message recovery. Experimental results are presented to show the feasibility of our proposal, representing an actual application of the optical encrypting protocols. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.