Novel quantum steganography with large payload

In this paper, we propose a novel quantum steganography protocol based on quantum secure direct communication. By using entanglement swapping of Bell states, the protocol builds up hidden channel within the improved ping-pong protocol to transmit secret messages. Comparing with the previous quantum steganographies, its capacity of hidden channel is increased to four times, and the superposition channel can transmit more information than the original quantum channel. Imperceptibility of the hidden channel in this protocol is good, since its possibility of detection can be arbitrarily reduced by increasing the Bell state's number. Security of the secret messages is also proved to be reliable regardless of whether the hidden channel has been detected or not. In addition, our protocol has various applications in quantum communication.