Parallel optical hash function based on the interaction between linearly polarized light and multiple-scattering media

Abstract

A method is proposed for constructing a cryptographic hash function based on the interaction between linearly polarized light and multiple-scattering media in a parallel fashion. It is well known that an unpredictable noise-like speckle pattern will appear when a light beam passes through a scattering medium. By leveraging this natural optical-encoding mechanism, we developed a paralleled algorithm to construct an optical hash function. It was shown by numerical simulation to have a high security level. Furthermore, in the proposed conceptual optical–digital setup, a strategy for multiplexing linearly polarized light was introduced to accelerate data processing.