Optical cryptography network topology based on 2D-to-3D conversion and phase-mask extraction

In recent years, high-security physical architectures are desirable for data storage and transmission networks. In this paper, we propose optical cryptography network topology based on 2D-to-3D conversion and phase-mask extraction. Two different phase retrieval algorithms are applied in the designed optical cryptography network topologies. These topological architectures can be interconnected to constitute many complex optical cryptography networks, and the plaintext can be fully encrypted into phase-only masks based on any one optical encryption strategy selected from the cryptography network. The results and analyses demonstrate that the proposed optical cryptography network topologies possess high security, and a new research perspective may be opened up for optical image encryption.

► Optical cryptography network topology is developed.
► The 2D plaintext is converted into a series of particles distributed in 3D space.
► Non-iterative and iterative phase retrieval algorithms are applied during image encryption.