Optical Image Encryption Using a Nonlinear Joint Transform Correlator and the Collins Diffraction Transform

The Collins diffraction transform (CDT) describes the optical wave diffraction from the generic paraxial optical system. The CDT has as special cases the diffraction domains given by the Fourier, Fresnel and fractional Fourier transforms. In this paper, we propose to describe the optical double random phase encoding (DRPE) using a nonlinear joint transform correlator (JTC) and the CDT. This new description of the nonlinear JTC-based encryption system using the CDT covers several optical processing domains, such as Fourier, Fresnel, fractional Fourier, extended fractional Fourier and Gyrator domains, among others. The maximum number of independent design parameters or new security keys of the proposed encryption system using the CDT increases three times in comparison with the same encryption system that uses the Fourier transform. The proposed encryption system using the CDT preserves the shift-invariance property of the JTC-based encryption system in the Fourier domain, with respect to the lateral displacement of both the key random mask in the decryption process and the retrieval of the primary image. The viability of this encryption system is verified and analysed by numerical simulations.