In this paper, we propose a method using structured-illumination-based diffractive imaging with a laterally-translated phase grating for optical double-image cryptography. An optical cryptosystem is designed, and multiple random phase-only masks are placed in the optical path. When a phase grating is laterally translated just before the plaintexts, several diffraction intensity patterns (i.e., ciphertexts) can be correspondingly obtained. During image decryption, an iterative retrieval algorithm is developed to extract plaintexts from the ciphertexts. In addition, security and advantages of the proposed method are analyzed. Feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated by numerical simulation results.

© 2011 Optical Society of America