Information security and authentication are important challenges facing society. Recent attacks by hackers on the databases of large commercial and financial companies have demonstrated that more research and development of advanced approaches are necessary to deny unauthorized access to critical data. Free space optical technology has been investigated by many researchers in information security, encryption, and authentication. The main motivation for using optics and photonics for information security is that optical waveforms possess many complex degrees of freedom such as amplitude, phase, polarization, large bandwidth, nonlinear transformations, quantum properties of photons, and multiplexing that can be combined in many ways to make information encryption more secure and more difficult to attack. This roadmap article presents an overview of the potential, recent advances, and challenges of optical security and encryption using free space optics. The roadmap on optical security is comprised of six categories that together include 16 short sections written by authors who have made relevant contributions in this field. The first category of this roadmap describes novel encryption approaches, including secure optical sensing which summarizes double random phase encryption applications and flaws [Yamaguchi], the digital holographic encryption in free space optical technique which describes encryption using multidimensional digital holography [Nomura], simultaneous encryption of multiple signals [Pérez-Cabré], asymmetric methods based on information truncation [Nishchal], and dynamic encryption of video sequences [Torroba]. Asymmetric and one-way cryptosystems are analyzed by Peng. The second category is on compression for encryption. In their respective contributions, Alfalou and Stern propose similar goals involving compressed data and compressive sensing encryption. The very important area of cryptanalysis is the topic of the third category with two sections: Sheridan reviews phase retrieval algorithms to perform different attacks, whereas Situ discusses nonlinear optical encryption techniques and the development of a rigorous optical information security theory. The fourth category with two contributions reports how encryption could be implemented at the nano- or micro-scale. Naruse discusses the use of nanostructures in security applications and Carnicer proposes encoding information in a tightly focused beam. In the fifth category, encryption based on ghost imaging using single-pixel detectors is also considered. In particular, the authors [Chen, Tajahuerce] emphasize the need for more specialized hardware and image processing algorithms. Finally, in the sixth category, Mosk and Javidi analyze in their corresponding papers how quantum imaging can benefit optical encryption systems. Sources that use few photons make encryption systems much more difficult to attack, providing a secure method for authentication.

This paper presents an overview of the potential of free space optical technology in information security, encryption, and authentication. Optical waveform posses many degrees of freedom such as amplitude, phase, polarization, spectral content, and multiplexing which can be combined in different ways to make the information encoding more secure. This paper reviews optical techniques for encryption and security of two-dimensional and three-dimensional data. Interferometric methods are used to record and retrieve data by either optical or digital holography for security applications. Digital holograms are widely used in recording and processing three dimensional data, and are attractive for securing three dimensional data. Also, we review optical authentication techniques applied to ID tags with visible and near infrared imaging. A variety of images and signatures, including biometrics, random codes, and primary images can be combined in an optical ID tag for security and authentication.

We describe a first-and-second-diffractive-order intraocular lens ((1^st,2^nd)DIOL) within the class of hybrid refractive-diffractive designs for intraocular lenses (IOLs) and analyse its properties of focus extension and compensation of longitudinal chromatic aberration (LCA), particularly for lenses with low addition. Power, energy efficiency and their wavelength dependence are extended from monofocal IOL and conventional bifocal zeroth-and-first-diffractive-order IOL ((0^th,1^st)DIOL) to (1^st,2^nd)DIOL of low addition. Compensation of LCA is experimentally assessed in optical bench through the through-focus energy efficiency of three Tecnis IOLs with red, green and blue illuminations: ZA9003 (monofocal), ZKB00 (bifocal (0^th,1^st)DIOL with + 2.75 D add) and Symfony ZXR00. We prove Tecnis Symfony ZXR00 IOL can be considered an example of (1^st,2^nd)DIOL design of low addition, with LCA compensation in both the distance and intermediate foci, whereas the bifocal (0^th,1^st)DIOL does not compensate in the distance focus. However, the energy efficiency of (1^st,2^nd)DIOL for wavelengths other than the design wavelength is markedly more asymmetric.

PURPOSE: To test the performance of a new monofocal intraocular lens, intended to extend depth of focus (Tecnis Eyhance, ICB00; Johnson & Johnson Vision, Inc) (ICB-IOL), in comparison to a standard monofocal IOL (Tecnis 1-piece, ZCB00; Johnson & Johnson Vision, Inc) (ZCB-IOL) of the same platform and material. METHODS: Assessment of the optical performance of the two IOLs was made in vitro using an optical test bench with a model eye. The spherical aberration, modulation transfer function (MTF), and area under the MTF (MTFa) were obtained for pupil sizes ranging from 2 to 5 mm. Through-focus MTFa curves between −3.00 and +1.00 diopters (D) were obtained with three pupil sizes (2, 3, and 4.5 mm). Halo formation was also assessed for both lenses. RESULTS: The ICB-IOL had slightly worse optical quality at its best focus (ie, lower MTF scores at distance vision) and more negative spherical aberration than the ZCB-IOL for pupils ranging from 2 to 3 mm. The maximum of the through-focus MTFa curve of the ICB-IOL with a 2-mm pupil shifted to a myopic defocus of −0.50 D. For larger pupils (≥ 3.5 mm), there were no differences in spherical aberration, MTF scores, and halo energy between the two lenses. CONCLUSIONS: The new ICB-IOL is a modified monofocal lens with 0.50 D of additional power in its central 2-mm zone and more negative spherical aberration values, which induce a myopic shift of the maximum of optical quality and could improve intermediate vision. For pupils larger than 3.5 mm, there were no differences between IOLs. The new ICB-IOL design would produce photic phenomena comparable to a standard IOL. [ J Refract Surg . 2020;36(9):625–632.]

The inherent distortion of a reflective parallel aligned spatial light modulator (SLM) may need compensation not only for the backplane curvature but also for other possible nonuniformities caused by thickness variations of the liquid crystal layer across the aperture. First, we build a global look-up table (LUT) of phase modulation versus the addressed gray level for the whole device aperture. Second, when a lack of spatial uniformity is observed, we define a grid of cells onto the SLM aperture and develop a multipoint calibration. The relative phase variations between neighboring cells for a uniform gray level lead us to build a multi-LUT for improved compensation. Multipoint calibration can be done using either phase-shift interferometry or Fourier diffraction pattern analysis of binary phase gratings. Experimental results show the compensation progress in diffractive optical elements displayed on two SLMs.