Patent attributes
Data is encrypted onto an electromagnetic beam by providing an electromagnetic beam having a signal component having a modal state, wherein the signal component is susceptible to accumulation of a geometric phase, and a reference component, transmitted along a path over at least part of which the signal component accumulates a geometric phase by transformation of its modal state from a first to a second modal state, from the second to at least one further modal state, and then back to the first modal state; and modulating with the data the geometric phase so accumulated, by modulating the modal state transformations. Data is decrypted from a received electromagnetic beam by corresponding processing of the received electromagnetic beam and by comparing an overall phase of the signal component with an overall phase of the reference component so as to retrieve the modulation.
