Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/08/15/optical_polarisation_encryption_swinburne/
DVD plus nano-rods equals security, density: researchers
A little light encryption
Posted in Science, 15th August 2012 23:45 GMT
Swinburne and Taiwanese researchers have demonstrated technology that can use a single laser beam to create 3D polarization in nanomaterials.
What’s cool about this is that they demonstrate that the polarization can be used to encrypt information – as well as expanding the storage capacity of optical media like DVDs.
As is shown in the illustration at the bottom of this story, the polarization technique – in its infancy at the moment – allows different images to be encoded in one place, showing up depending on the polarization the “read” beam uses.
Using polarization to encode information like this isn’t new: however, achieving 3D polarization using a single beam is, according to the researchers.
As the abstract in Nature states, “arbitrary three-dimensional polarization orientation of a beam hasn’t been achieved yet”.
Gold nano-rods tuned to specific wavelengths are added to the surface of the DVD, according to Swinburne’s Professor Min Gu. The rods are sensitive to the polarization of the “write-laser” – so while one polarization will align some particles in the rods, a different polarization will affect a different set of particles.
Professor Gu says the laser can be polarized “in any direction” – yielding the “arbitrary” polarization referred to in the Nature paper. This characteristic of the laser is what provides both the lift in storage density and the technique’s encryption possibilities. ®
Depending on write polarization, the same area can store different images. Source: Nature