Compressive optical image encryption with two-step-only quadrature phase-shifting digital holography

An image encryption method which combines two-step-only quadrature phase-shifting digital holography with compressive sensing (CS) has been proposed in the fully optical domain. An object image is firstly encrypted to two on-axis quadrature-phase holograms using the two random phase masks in the Mach–Zehnder interferometer. Then, the two encrypted images are highly compressed to a one-dimensional signal using the single-pixel compressive holographic imaging in the optical domain. At the receiving terminal, the two compressive encrypted holograms are exactly reconstructed from much less than the Nyquist sampling number of observations by solving an optimization problem, and the original image can be decrypted with only two reconstructed holograms and the correct keys. This method largely decreases holograms data volume for the current optical image encryption system, and it is also suitable for some special optical imaging cases such as different wavelengths imaging and weak light imaging. Numerical simulation is performed to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of this novel image encryption method.