Roadmap on Optics and Photonics for Security and Encryption

Abstract

In 1994, Javidi and Horner published a paper in Optical Engineering that highlighted the ability of free space optical systems to manipulate sensitive data for authentication purposes. The underlying idea was effective yet surprisingly simple: an optical nonlinear joint transform using a random phase mask in both the input and the reference could produce a correlation peak to indicate whether the input object is authentic or not. This seminal paper fueled the development of this new discipline. After three decades, optical encryption and security have matured into a field that plays a central role in the development of photonics techniques. While the pioneering work was mainly focused on the field of optical information processing, nowadays, a broad spectrum of disciplines are contributing to developing security solutions, including nanotechnology, materials science, quantum information, and deep learning, just to cite a few. The present roadmap paper gathers 28 leading authors in the field from 21 academic institutions across nine different countries. It is organized into 17 sections which discuss the present and future challenges, state-of-the-art technology, and real-world solutions to address the security challenges facing our society.